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iED 2013
PROCEEDINGS
ISSN 2325-4041
ImmersiveEducation.org
EDITORS:
Aaron E. Walsh, Immersive Education Initiative
Saadia Khan, Teachers College, Columbia University
Richard Gilbert, Loyola Marymount University (LMU)
Mike Gale, Boston College
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COPYRIGHT, LICENSE AND USAGE NOTICE
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About the Immersive Education Initiative
The Immersive Education Initiative is a non-profit international collaboration of
educational institutions, research institutes, museums, consortia and companies. The
Initiative was established in 2005 with the mission to define and develop standards,
best practices, technology platforms, training and education programs, and
communities of support for virtual worlds, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality,
simulations, game-based learning and training systems, and fully immersive
environments such as caves and domes.
Thousands of faculty, researchers, staff and administrators are members of the
Immersive Education Initiative, who together service millions of academic and
corporate learners worldwide.
Chapters support the rapid and continued growth of Immersive Education throughout
the world, and constitute the geographically distributed structure of the organization
through which regional and local members are supported and enriched. Chapters
organize officially sanctioned Summits, Days, workshops, collaborations, seminars,
lectures, forums, meetings, public service events and activities, technical groups,
technical work items, research, and related activities.
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About Immersive Education Summits
Immersive Education (iED) Summits are official Immersive Education Initiative
conferences organized for educators, researchers, administrators, business leaders
and the general public. iED Summits consist of presentations, panel discussions,
break-out sessions, demos and workshops that provide attendees with an in-depth
overview of immersion and the technologies that enable immersion. iED Summits
feature new and emerging virtual worlds, game-based learning and training systems,
simulations, mixed/augmented reality, fully immersive environments, immersive learning
and training platforms, cutting-edge research from around the world, and related tools,
techniques, technologies, standards and best practices.
Speakers at iED Summits have included faculty, researchers, staff, administrators and
professionals from Boston College, Harvard University (Harvard Graduate School of
Education; Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School; Harvard
Kennedy School of Government; Harvard University Interactive Media Group),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT Media Lab, The Smithsonian
Institution, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization),
Federation of American Scientists (FAS), United States Department of Education,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, IBM, Temple University, Stanford University, Internet 2, Synthespian Hollywood
Studios, Cornell University, Loyola Marymount University, Kauffman Foundation,
Amherst College, Teacher’s College at Columbia University, Boston Library
Consortium, Stratasys Ltd., Duke University, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Turner
Broadcasting, Open Wonderland Foundation, Gates Planetarium, Carnegie Mellon
University, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Intel Corporation, University of Maryland College
Park, Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, South Park Elementary School,
University of Colorado Boulder, Boston Public Schools (BPS), Berklee College of Music,
Computerworld, Stanford University School Of Medicine, University of Notre Dame, Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, Emerson College, Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
Imperial College London (UK), University of Zurich (Switzerland), realXtend Foundation
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(Finland), The MOFET Institute (Israel), Keio University (Japan), National University of
Singapore (NUS), Coventry University (UK), Curtin University (Australia), Giunti Labs
(Italy), European Learning Industry Group, Open University (UK), Universidad Carlos III
de Madrid (Spain), University of Oulu (Finland), Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden),
École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD; France), Interdisciplinary
Center Herzliya (Israel), Graz University of Technology (Austria), University of Ulster
(Ireland), National Board of Education (Finland), Eindhoven University of Technology
(Netherlands), University of West of Scotland (UK) , University of St. Andrews
(Scotland), University of Essex (UK), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain),
Ministry of Gender, Health and Social Policies (Andalucía, Spain), Manchester Business
School (UK), City of Oulu (Finland), University of Vienna (Austria), University of
Barcelona (Spain), Government of New South Wales (Australia), Eötvös Loránd
Tudományegyetem (Hungary), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS;
Brazil), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), and many more world-class
organizations.
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iED 2013
The world's leading experts in immersion and immersive technology convened June 03-06
at Boston College (USA) for the 8th Immersive Education Summit.
Building on the success of the previous seven years of Immersive Education conferences
the four-day iED 2013 event featured 3 tracks (Practitioner, Research and Business tracks)
and an entire day dedicated to hands-on workshops.
Topics of interest addressed through the iED 2013 Call for Proposals (CfP) included:
Learning Games, Serious Games and Game-based Teaching and Training
Game-based Learning and Training Technologies/Systems (e.g., PC, Mac, XBox, Playstation,
Nintendo, iPad, etc.)
Full-body immersion (e.g., caves, domes, natural interfaces, XBox 360 Kinect, etc.)
Augmented Reality (AR)
Mixed Reality (MR)
Head-mounted Displays (HMDs)
Haptics, Natural Interfaces & Touch Interfaces (e.g., iPad, iPhone, Tablets, Android, etc.)
Mobile teaching and training apps (e.g., iPad, iPhone, Tablets, Android devices, etc.)
Robotics
3D Printing, Design, Rapid Prototyping (e.g., MakerBot, Shapeways, Materialise, Sculpteo, etc.)
Computational Thinking and Learning Systems (e.g., Scratch, Alice, Greenfoot, etc.)
Stealth Learning
Virtual Worlds
Virtual Reality (VR)
Simulation
Psychologically Beneficial Immersive Environments as defined by iED PIE.TWG
Business in the Age of Immersive Education
Pedagogy in the Age of Immersive Education
Research in the Age of Immersive Education
Assessment in the Age of Immersive Education
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Program Committee and Reviewers
Colin Allison
University of St Andrews
Chair, Immersive Education Virtual Worlds Group (VIR.TWG)
Barbara Avila
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Maria Badilla
Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción
Melissa A. Carrillo
Smithsonian Latino Center
Chair, Mid-Atlantic USA Chapter of Immersive Education (iED Mid-Atlantic)
Henry B.L. Duh
University of Tasmania
Chair, Australian Chapter of Immersive Education (iED Australia)
Kai Erenli
University of Applied Sciences Vienna
Chair, Immersive Education Virtual Worlds Group (VIR.TWG)
Richard Gilbert
Loyola Marymount University (LMU)
Chair, Western USA Chapter of Immersive Education (iED West)
Daniel Green
Oracle Corporation
Chair, MidAmerica Chapter of Immersive Education (iED MidAmerica)
Christian Guetl
Graz University of Technology
European Chapter of Immersive Education (iED Europe) Board Member
Sherry Hall
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Western USA Chapter of Immersive Education (iED West) Board Member
Jeffrey Jacobson
PublicVR
Chair, Immersive Education Full/Augmented/Mixed Reality Group (FAM.TWG)
Saadia Khan
Teachers College, Columbia University
Chair, New York Chapter of Immersive Education (iED NY)
Daniel Livingstone
University of the West of Scotland
Pasi Mattila
Center for Internet Excellence (CIE)
Barbara Mikolajczak
Boston College
Chair, Immersive Education Initiative K-12 and Scratch Groups
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Aaron E. Walsh
Immersive Education Initiative
Boston College
Rich White
Greenbush Education Service Center
Chair, MidAmerica Chapter of Immersive Education (iED MidAmerica)
Fatimah Wirth
Georgia Institute of Technology
Colin Wood
New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Communities
Chair, Australian Chapter of Immersive Education (iED Australia)
Nicole Yankelovich
WonderBuilders, Inc.
Open Wonderland Foundation
Jerome Yavarkovsky
Journal of Immersive Education (JiED)
New York Chapter of Immersive Education (iED NY) Board Member
Steven Zhou
National University of Singapore
Chair, Singapore Chapter of Immersive Education (iED Singapore)
Editors
Aaron E. Walsh
Director, Immersive Education Initiative
Faculty, Boston College
Saadia Khan
Faculty, Teachers College, Columbia University
Chair, New York Chapter of the Immersive Education Initiative (iED NY)
Richard Gilbert
Faculty, Loyola Marymount University (LMU)
Chair, Western USA Chapter of the Immersive Education Initiative (iED West)
Mike Gale
Staff, Immersive Education Initiative
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
KEYNOTES
The Literacy Moonshot: Learning to Read Beyond the Reach of Schools ............................................. 001
Cynthia Breazeal
The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum: Crossing Borders/ Mixed Realities ……………………………. 004
Melissa A. Carrillo
Sowing The Seeds for a More Creative Society ………………...………………………….……………...… 006
Mitchel Resnick
The Rise of 3D Printing ………………...…........………………………………………………………………. 008
Bruce Bradshaw
PAPERS : Research, Technical and Theoretical Papers
PolySocial Reality for Education: Addressing the Vacancy Problem with Mobile Cross Reality ….…… 010
Colin Allison, CJ Davies, Alan Miller
Enhancing Learning and Motivation through Surrogate Embodiment in MUVE-based Online Courses 030
Saadia A. Khan
Promoting Engagement and Complex Learning in OpenSim ……………………………………………… 042
L. Tarouco, B. Avila, E. Amaral
From Metaverse to MOOC: Can the Cloud meet Scalability Challenges for Open Virtual Worlds? ....... 051
Colin Allison, Iain Oliver, Alan Miller, C.J. Davies, John McCaffery
Virtual World Access and Control: A Role Based Approach to Securing Content In-World …………… 060
C. Lesko, Y. Hollingsworth, S. Kibbe
Formative Assessment in Immersive Environments: A Semantic Approach to Automated Evaluation
of User Behavior in Open Wonderland ……………………………………………………………………….. 070
Joachim Maderer, Christian Gütl, Mohammad AL-Smadi
A Technological Model for Teaching in Immersive Worlds: TYMMI’s Project ……………………………. 084
M.G. Badilla, C. Lara
Towards a Theory of Immersive Fluency ……………………………………………………………………... 099
Nicola Marae Allain
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Immersive Learning in Education ……………………………………………………………………………… 109
Olinkha Gustafson-Pearce, Julia Stephenson
Making it Real: The Cosmic Background Radiation Explorer App ………………………………………… 123
R. Blundell
Classroom Group-directed Exploratory Learning through a Full-body Immersive
Digital Learning Playground …………………………………………………………………………………… 134
Chin-Feng Chen, Chia-Jung Wu, De-Yuan Huang, Yi-Chuan Fan,
Chi-Wen Huang, Chin-Yeh Wang, Gwo-Dong Chen
The Vari House: Digital Puppeteering for History Education ………………………………………………. 146
J. Jacobson, D. Sanders
OUTLIERS : Novel Late-Breaking Research, Technology and Techniques
Human Identity in the New Digital Age: The Distributed Self and the Identity Mapping Project ……..... 170
Richard L. Gilbert
iAchieve, Empowering Students through Interactive Educational Data Exploration …………………….. 179
Josephone Tsay, Zifeng Tian, Ningyu Mao, Jennifer Sheu, Weichuan Tian, Mohit Sadhu, Yang Shi
POSTERS
Mobile Assignment at the Museum: How a Location-based Assignment can
Enhance the Educational Experience ………………………………………………………………………… 192
Amir Bar
Serious Games: A Comprehensive Review of Learning Outcomes ……………………………………….. 199
Katherine Petersen
Testing Manual Dexterity in Dentistry using a Virtual Reality Haptic Simulator ………………………….. 216
G. Ben Gal, A. Ziv, N. Gafni, E. Weiss
PRESENTATIONS, DEMOS AND WORKSHOPS
Presentations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 220
Demos ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 220
Workshops ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 220
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KEYNOTE
The Literacy Moonshot: Learning to Read Beyond the Reach of Schools
Cynthia Breazeal1, 2, 3
Affiliations:
1
Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT
2
Founding Director, Personal Robots Group at MIT Media Lab
3
Senior Advisor, Journal of Immersive Education (JiED)
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In her keynote address, The Literacy Moonshot: Learning to Read Beyond
the Reach of Schools, Cynthia will share a personal and provocative
example of the power of child-driven learning with iED 2013 attendees.
She will present findings and learning outcomes from the first year of
deployment of tablet computers in two remote Ethiopian villages, where
children live beyond the reach of school and the villages are entirely
illiterate.
Her ground-breaking work, conducted in collaboration with Maryanne
Wolf (Tufts University) and Robin Morris (Georgia State University),
harnesses the power of mobile technology to foster literacy learning for
children who live where school is not an option and no adults can teach
them how to read.
Cynthia Breazeal is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she founded and directs
the Personal Robots Group at the Media Lab. She is a pioneer of social
robotics and Human Robot Interaction. She has authored the book
“Designing Sociable Robots”, has published over 100 peer-reviewed
articles in journals and conferences on the topics of autonomous robotics,
artificial intelligence, human robot interaction, and robot learning. She
serves on several editorial boards in the areas of autonomous robots,
affective computing, entertainment technology and multi-agent systems.
She is also a member of the advisory board for the Science Channel and
an Overseer at the Museum of Science, Boston. In 2013 she was
appointed Senior Advisor of the Journal of Immersive Education (JiED),
the publication of record for the international Immersive Education
Initiative.
Her research focuses on developing the principles, techniques, and
technologies for personal robots that are socially intelligent, interact and
communicate with people in human-centric terms, work with humans as
peers, and learn from people as an apprentice. She has developed some
of the world’s most famous robotic creatures ranging from small hexapod
robots, to embedding robotic technologies into familiar everyday artifacts,
to creating highly expressive humanoid robots and robot characters. Her
recent work is investigates the impact of social robots on helping people
of all ages to achieve personal goals that contribute to quality of life, in
domains such as physical performance, learning and education, health,
and family communication and play over distance. Dr. Breazeal is
recognized as a prominent young innovator. She is a recipient of the
National Academy of Engineering’s Gilbreth Lecture Award, Technology
Review’s TR35 Award, and TIME magazine’s Best Inventions of 2008. She
has won numerous best paper and best technology inventions at top
academic conferences. She has also been awarded an ONR Young
Investigator Award, and was honored as finalist in the National Design
Awards in Communication.
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The Literacy Moonshot: Learning to Read Beyond the Reach of Schools
Children are the most precious natural resource of any nation. Their
ability to read represents one of the single most important skills for them to
develop, if they are to create a foundation for the rest of learning and to thrive as
individuals and global citizens. Literacy opens the mind of a child to a potential
lifetime of knowledge in all its varieties, personal growth, and critical and
creative thinking.
This is the positive side of the literacy equation; the insidious, converse side is
that literally millions of children will never learn to read with consequences that
are evident around the world. It is estimated that around 67 million children live
in poor, remote areas where there is no access to schools and where everyone
around them is illiterate. There are at least another 100 million children who live
where schooling is so inadequate, that they also fail to learn to read in any
meaningful manner. There are, and always will be, places in every country in the
world where good schools will not exist and good teachers will not want to go.
Teacher training cannot be, therefore, more than an important but insufficient
solution to this problem, particularly in the most remote areas. Even in
developed countries such as the United States, literacy rates, especially in
areas of poverty, are unacceptably low.
We need a fundamentally different approach to this set of issues. Advances in
new, affordable mobile computer technologies, growing ubiquity of connectivity
to the Internet with cloud computing and big data analytics, and modern
advances in cognitive neuroscience that reveal how the brain learns to read now
allow us to pose this transformative question: can children learn to read together
using digital tablets without access to schools, and thereafter read to learn?
During my iED 2013 keynote address I will present both the vision and results
to date of our team's work in the pursuit of this provocative question. We focus
on our active deployment of tablet computers in two villages in remote areas in
Ethiopia where children live beyond the reach of school and the entire village is
illiterate.
This is a story of technological innovation, community, and the power of childdriven learning. What we can learn from this endeavor has to potential to help us
think differently about education in both formal and informal
learning environments, even in the most extreme contexts.”
Cynthia Breazeal
Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT
Founding Director, Personal Robots Group at the Media Lab
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KEYNOTE
The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum:
Crossing Borders / Mixed Realities
Melissa A. Carrillo1,2,3
Affiliations:
1
Director of the New Media & Technology for the Smithsonian Latino Center
2
Co-chair, Immersive Education Initiative Mid-Atlantic USA Chapter (iED Mid-Atlantic)
3
Co-Chair, Immersive Education Initiative Libraries and Museums Technology Working
Group (LAM.TWG)
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In her keynote address, The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum: Crossing
Borders/Mixed Realities, Melissa will share with iED 2013 attendees her
experiences developing and disseminating immersive learning strategies
from within a transmedia virtual museum model. She will share key
milestones and current trends in digital curation from the vast body of
work established under the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum (LVM).
As the virtual museum’s creative director, Melissa developed the core
conceptual framework for the project and orchestrated the development
of a strategic plan in 2007 with a team of media experts from the
Smithsonian Institution and external partners. The initiative is in its sixth
year of development and has emerged as a bilingual resource virtual
museum model for cross-platform accessible content created to meet a
wide range of user experiences and related contexts.
Her vision and implementation of a virtual museum model as a transmedia
experience has contributed to the Smithsonian's efforts in meeting 21
Century challenges and needs for reaching diverse audiences in
innovative and meaningful ways. During her iED 2013 keynote address
Melissa will be joined by LVM partners in STEM: The University of Texas at
El Paso, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. (SERC).
Other guests include Dr. Juana Roman and transmedia artist Stacey Fox,
members of the LVM Advisory Council.
Melissa A. Carrillo is the Director of New Media & Technology for the
Smithsonian Latino Center (SLC) and co-chair of the Immersive Education
Initiative’s Libraries and Museums Technology Working Group
(LAM.TWG). Ms. Carrillo has directed and designed interactive and
immersive (bilingual) online experiences for the SLC for thirteen years that
encompass representing and exploring Latino cultural identity through the
lens of new media and emerging technologies. Ms. Carrillo spearheads
the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum (LVM); an online and immersive
transmedia virtual museum model for exploring and representing cultural
identity in the age of the social web. These shared experiences augment
and showcase Smithsonian Latino collections and resources, opening
new possibilities for distance learning applications and reaching remote
target audiences.
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KEYNOTE
Sowing The Seeds for a More Creative Society
Mitchel Resnick1,2
Affiliations:
1
Professor of Learning Research, MIT Media Lab
2
Director, Lifelong Kindergarten Group, MIT Media Lab
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In his iED 2013 keynote address, Sowing The Seeds For A More Creative
Society, Mitchel will discuss new technologies and activities designed
specifically to help children learn to think creatively, reason
systematically, and work collaboratively so that they are prepared for life
in the Creative Society.
Mitchel's keynote will have a special focus on Scratch, an authoring tool
and online community developed by the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten
research group that he directs.
In today's rapidly changing society, people must continually come up
with creative solutions to unexpected problems. More than ever before, success
and happiness are based not on what you know, but on your ability to think and
act creatively. In short, we are living in the Creative Society. But there is a
problem. Most activities in children's lives, whether it's lessons in the classroom
or games in the living room, are not designed to help children develop as
creative thinkers. In my iED 2013 keynote address I will discuss new
technologies and activities designed specifically to help children learn to think
creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively, so that they are
prepared for life in the Creative Society. I will focus particularly on Scratch, an
authoring tool and online community that enables children (ages 8 and up) to
create their own interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations -- and
share their creations with one another online (http://scratch.mit.edu). In the
process, children develop skills and ways of thinking that are essential for
becoming active participants in the Creative Society.”
Mitchel Resnick Professor of Learning Research, MIT Media Lab Director, Lifelong Kindergarten Group, MIT Media Lab
Mitchel Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, develops new
technologies and activities to engage people (especially children) in creative learning
experiences. His Lifelong Kindergarten research group developed ideas and
technologies underlying the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits and Scratch programming
software, used by millions of young people around the world. He also co-founded the
Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of 100 after-school learning
centers where youth from low-income communities learn to express themselves
creatively with new technologies. Resnick earned a BS in physics from Princeton, and
an MS and PhD in computer science from MIT. He was awarded the McGraw Prize in
Education in 2011.
iED CERTIFICATION : Scratch is an official Immersive Education (iED)
learning environment for which a number of professional development (PD) iED
2013 hands-on workshops are offered for iED teacher/trainer certification. The
corresponding iED Scratch Technology Working Group (SCR.TWG) is open to
all attendees and iED members.
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KEYNOTE
The Rise of 3D Printing
Bruce Bradshaw1
Affiliations:
1
Director of Marketing, Stratasys
The popularity of 3D printers is on the rise across the globe.
Organizations have embraced the technology in many industries
including aerospace, consumer electronics, and automotive to name just
a few. As a result, 3D printing has had a tremendous impact on
education – from the world’s most renowned research institutions all the
way through K12 classrooms.
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There are countless examples of students at every level utilizing 3D
printing to bring their ideas to life, from a First Robotics team collaborating
to design the next “cutting edge” robot to a “Project Lead the Way”
classroom energizing students about engineering all the way to MIT’s
Media Lab printing art designs for the Museum of Modern Art.
In his keynote address, Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing for the
market-leading 3D printing company Stratasys, will share with iED 2013
attendees some of the most innovative real-life case studies that are being
taught today in classrooms using 3D printing. In addition, you will also
learn about the differing technologies of 3D printing and hear about the
exciting industry trends that have brought 3D printing to the forefront of
everyday media.
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PAPER
PolySocial Reality for Education: Addressing the Vacancy Problem with
Mobile Cross Reality
Authors: Colin Allison1*, CJ Davies1†, Alan Miller1‡
Affiliations:
1
School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews
*
ca@st-andrews.ac.uk
†
cjd44@st-andrews.ac.uk, corresponding author
‡
alan.miller@st-andrews.ac.uk
Abstract:
Widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets has enabled people to multiplex their
physical reality, where they engage in face-to-face social interaction, with Web-based
social networks and apps, whilst emerging 3D Web technologies hold promise for
networks of parallel 3D virtual environments to emerge. Although current technologies
allow this multiplexing of physical reality and 2D Web, in a situation called PolySocial
Reality, the same cannot yet be achieved with 3D content. Cross Reality was proposed to
address this issue; however so far it has focused on the use of fixed links between
physical and virtual environments in closed lab settings, limiting investigation of the
explorative and social aspects. This paper presents an architecture and implementation
that addresses these shortcomings using a tablet and the Pangolin virtual world viewer to
provide a mobile interface to a corresponding 3D virtual environment. Motivation for this
project stemmed from a desire to enable students to interact with existing virtual
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reconstructions of cultural heritage sites in tandem with exploration of the corresponding
real locations, avoiding the adverse temporal separation caused otherwise by interacting
with the virtual content only within the classroom, with the accuracy of GPS tracking
emerging as a constraint on this style of interaction.
One Sentence Summary: This paper presents a system for student exploration of 3D
environments in tandem with corresponding real locations.
Introduction
The rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets and their popularity for social interaction
via the mobile Web [1] has led to people increasingly mixing their online and ‘real life’
behaviours, multiplexing traditional face-to-face social interaction with Web-based social
networks and apps. The pervasive provision of these devices provides a new mechanism
for people to take physical space for granted, to cerebrally occupy a Web-based location
whilst their bodies are simultaneously established in a physical location [2]. The term
PolySocial Reality (PoSR) has been proposed to describe these multiplexed mixed
realities [3], wherein individuals interact within multiple environments [4], and to
identify the extent and impact of shared and unshared experience in such situations [5].
Whilst current technologies allow PoSR involving 2D Web content to manifest,
attempting the same with 3D content is marred by the ‘vacancy problem’: the inability to
immerse oneself in 3D content whilst maintaining awareness of one’s physical
surroundings [6]. With the majority of players of popular Massively Multiplayer Online
games (MMOs) wishing they could spend more time playing, over a fifth even wanting to
spend all of their time in game [7], and with social roles and the community aspect
constituting key aspects of these game’s popularity [7, 8], exploring approaches for
achieving 3D PoSR is prudent as demand for access to 3D social environments will only
increase as 3D Web technologies further develop and more increasingly appeal to general
social Web users and to educators in addition to gamers.
The capacity of 3D social environments to provide extensible collaborative platforms for
the reconstruction of cultural heritage sites and the potential of such reconstructions to
promote understanding of and engagement with cultural heritage content both in public
and classroom settings has been demonstrated [9, 10]. This research tested various
deployment scenarios, leveraging different control methodologies (traditional keyboard
and mouse, Xbox controllers and gesture recognition via Kinect) and display options
(regular 24” desktop monitors, larger 40” televisions and still larger 150” projection)
along with voice interaction with actors playing the parts of historical figures. These
scenarios support three deployment modes; a network of reconstructions accessible via
the Internet as part of the OpenSim hypergrid; portable LAN exhibitions where multiple
computers are connected to a server via local network suitable for classroom use; and
immersive installations combining projection and Kinect for use in museums and cultural
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heritage centers. In all these scenarios a recurrent theme has been the relationship
between the virtual reconstruction and the physicality of the corresponding physical site.
Frequently projects have involved interactions with the reconstruction and subsequent
visits and tours of the physical site; however the temporal separation between these
activities makes it harder to appreciate the sometimes complex relationships between the
two. To overcome this temporal separation of experiencing the virtual and the real it is
necessary for the virtual representation to be accessible in tandem at the physical site by
overcoming the vacancy problem.
The cross reality concept [6, 11] was proposed as an approach to address the vacancy
problem and describes the mixed reality situation that arises from the combination of
physical reality with a complete [12] 3D virtual environment. Previous cross reality
experiments did not address the explorative nor social elements of the paradigm as they
focused on static locations at which the two environments were linked within closed lab
surroundings [2]. The project described in this paper addressed these omissions with the
Pangolin virtual world viewer [13] that uses a tablet computer with location and
orientation sensors to provide users with a mobile cross reality interface allowing them to
interact with 3D reconstructions of cultural heritage sites whilst simultaneously exploring
the corresponding physical site.
Scope
The amount that the real and virtual environments that constitute a cross reality system
spatially relate to each other is an important design decision which largely prescribes the
style of interaction of the system as a whole. If the virtual environment represents a toscale replica of the real environment, an allusion to the ‘mirror world’ concept [14–16],
then monitoring a user’s real position provides an implicit method of control for their
virtual presence and allows navigation of the virtual content with no conscious manual
control. This approach substantially lightens the cognitive load of maintaining a presence
in a virtual environment, which is one of the main contributors to the vacancy problem.
This paper presents a cross reality project in which there is a high degree of spatial
relationship between the real and virtual environments, as it deals with bringing together
virtual reconstructions of cultural heritage sites with their corresponding real locations.
The backdrop for many of the experiments is the impressive ruins of the St Andrews
cathedral, while the virtual environment is a ‘distorted’ [12] OpenSim simulation of the
same location that presents a historically accurate reconstruction of the cathedral as it
would have stood at the peak of its former glory [9, 17] (see Figure 1). This is a very
large reconstruction, over 400m by 600m, of a complex multi-storey building featuring
the cloisters as well as the Cannons’ living quarters. It is a challenging reconstruction for
a mobile device to render and consequently a good testing environment.
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The same pioneering collaborations between computer scientists, educationalists and
historians that led to the creation of the St Andrews cathedral reconstruction have also led
to the creation of reconstructions of; a 6th Century Spartan Basilica, Virtual Harlem
(1921), Linlithgow Palace (1561), Brora Salt Pans (1599), Featherstone Fishing Station
(19th century), Eyemouth Fort (1610), an Iron Age Wheel House and Caen Township
(1815). These reconstructions provide a platform for interactive historical narratives, a
stage for visitors to play upon and engage in both serious (and not so serious) games both
alone and with other users, and serve as a focal point for educational investigations into
local history and culture [9, 18]. The reconstructions have been widely used in a range of
real world educational contexts. In the formal sector they have been a vehicle for
investigative research, part of degree accredited university modules and used in both
primary and secondary education (see Figure 2 for a depiction of a typical scenario).
They have also been used as the content for interactive museum installations, art
installations and community groups. This has involved further collaborations with
Education Scotland, Historic Scotland, SCAPE Trust, Timespan cultural center, the
Museum of the University of St Andrews (MUSA), Madras College, Linlithgow Palace
and Strathkiness Primary School.
The project described in this paper furthers this previous work by developing an interface
to allow students to explore both a physical site and its virtual reconstruction in tandem,
rather than having to explore the reconstruction from a computer in the classroom and
trying to relate what they had seen to a visit to the physical site at a later date. This
project, introduced in [19], developed a modified version of the Second Life viewer
called Pangolin, which through use of sensors allows movement of the avatar and camera
to be implicitly controlled by sensing the physical position and orientation of the tablet
computer which the user carries and upon which the viewer executes. Figure 3 depicts the
system in use at the St Andrews cathedral.
This system promises to be beneficial in a number of scenarios;
1. Exploration of a cultural heritage site is augmented by the ability to navigate the
3D reconstruction and reflection is stimulated through the close juxtaposition of
the remains and an accessible interpretation.
2. Access to other Web-based media (including video, audio and social networks,
with this media adding to the experience of the real exploration and the real
exploration adding to the experience of the Web-based media) is organized by the
reconstruction, thereby supporting further intellectual enquiry.
3. Individuals and groups will benefit from interaction with remote participants who
are connected to the reconstruction from a distant location. These remote visitors
could be friends and family, or domain experts who could provide remote tours
and disseminate domain specific knowledge without having to travel to the
corresponding physical` site.
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Figure 1: OpenSim reconstruction of the St Andrews cathedral.
Figure 2: Madras College students interacting with the St Andrews cathedral OpenSim
reconstruction via a traditional desktop computer with 20” monitor, keyboard and mouse.
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Figure 3: The Pangolin viewer running on a tablet computer at the St Andrews cathedral,
with the camera orientation of the viewer synchronised to the physical orientation of the
tablet, the view of the virtual reconstruction corresponding to that of the physical ruins.
Results
Two plausible modalities of interaction were identified for this system, with each
presenting different requirements with regards to accuracy of position tracking.
The first modality is one in which a number of locations that represent points of
particular interest are identified. This is already a common practice at cultural heritage
sites, with such locations often bearing signs or placards presenting text and/or images
explaining what can be observed from the position. With Pangolin, when a user walks
within a certain range of such a point, their avatar can be moved to the corresponding
location within the reconstruction (and a sound played to alert the user to the fact that
there is something of interest to observe) from which they can then move the tablet
around them to examine their surroundings in the reconstruction. This modality is similar
to audio tours employed by many museums and cultural heritage sites, but replaces the
requirement to follow a static route or type in numbers of locations with the ability to
freely navigate the real environment with access to additional information being triggered
automatically once within the required range of a point of interest.
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The second modality is one of free roaming exploration, in which the movements of the
user’s avatar within the reconstruction mimic the user’s movements within the real world
as closely as possible.
The first modality can be scaled to function with different accuracies of position tracking;
as long as the distance between any two points of interest is at least as much as the worst
case performance of the position tracking then distinguishing correctly between different
points will always succeed. The second modality requires extremely accurate position
tracking, arguably surpassing the capabilities of mainstream GPS technology even in
ideal situations.
The GPS receiver that was used for the Pangolin platform quotes performance of 2m
Circular Error Probable (CEP) in ideal circumstances where additional correction data are
available, falling to 2.5m CEP where these additional data are not available; this means
that in ideal circumstances there is 50% certainty that the position reported by the GPS
receiver is within 2m of its actual position. During the experiments the GPS receiver was
unable to maintain reception of these additional correction data; when left stationary for
several minutes reception was possible however subsequent movement of only a few
meters at walking pace broke the connection. This reduced the theoretical maximum
performance to 2.5m CEP, with observed performance being lower.
Calculating the Hausdorff distance between a planned walking route around the cathedral
and the route recorded by the GPS receiver when following this route provided a measure
of the real world positional accuracy attainable in the particular conditions of the case
study and thus which of the modalities is plausible. In this scenario, the Hausdorff
distance represents the furthest distance needed to travel from any point on the route
recorded by the GPS receiver to reach the nearest point on the planned route. Figure 4
depicts an aerial view of the St Andrews cathedral ruins; the blue line represents the
planned route, red the route recorded by the Pangolin GPS receiver and green the route
recorded by a smartphone’s GPS receiver for comparative purposes, both while walking
the planned route.
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Figure 4: An aerial view oriented North upward of the St Andrews cathedral ruins; the
blue line represents a planned route, red the route recorded by the Pangolin GPS receiver
and green the route recorded by the smartphone’s GPS receiver whilst walking the
planned route.
The Hausdorff distance between the planned route and that recorded by the Pangolin GPS
receiver was 1.02e-04°. The ‘length’ of a degree of latitude and a degree of longitude
depends upon location upon the Earth; around the location of the St Andrews cathedral 1°
of latitude is equivalent to 111347.95m and 1° of longitude to 61843.88m. Thus the
Hausdorff distance of 1.02e-04° can be visualized as ±11.3m of North/South inaccuracy or
±6.3m of East/West inaccuracy (or a combination of both N/S and E/W inaccuracy not
exceeding a total displacement of 1.02e-04° from the planned route).
The Pangolin GPS receiver did achieve better performance than that of the smartphone,
which recorded a Hausdorff distance of 1.33e-04° (±14.8m N/S, ±8.2m E/W). The
Hausdorff distance between the routes logged by the Pangolin receiver and the
smartphone was 1.14e-04° (±12.7m N/S, ±7.0m E/W), which represents a low correlation
between the inaccuracies recorded by the two receivers even though they are of similar
magnitudes from the planned route.
The maximum inaccuracies were recorded when walking along the South wall of the
cathedral’s nave. This wall is one of the most complete sections of the building with
stonework reaching some 30ft above ground level and providing an effective obstruction
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to line-of-sight to half of the sky (and substantially impairing reception of signals from
GPS satellites) when in close proximity to it. When considering just the sub-route shown
in Figure 5, which terminates before this wall begins to significantly obstruct view of the
sky, the Hausdorff distances are notably smaller; the Pangolin GPS receiver achieved a
Hausdorff distance of 7.23e-05° (±8.05m N/S, ±4.47m E/W) throughout this sub-route,
with the smartphone still behind with 8.99e-05° (±10.01m N/S, ±5.56m E/W). Again the
Hausforff distance between the receivers showed low correlation between the
inaccuracies, at 6.43e-05° (±7.12m N/S, ±3.98m E/W).
blue line represents the first sub-route of the planned route, red the sub-route recorded by
the Pangolin GPS receiver and green the sub-route recorded by the smartphone’s GPS
receiver whilst walking the first planned sub-route.
When analyzing the tracks in the vicinity of the nave (see Figure 6) it is shown that
although the receiver used by Pangolin outperformed the smartphone in terms of
Hausdorff distance this relationship can be considered misleading as the smartphone
track corresponded more closely in shape to the planned route even if it did stray further
at its extreme. The discrepancy in the behavior of the two receivers in this situation is
attributed to different implementations of dead-reckoning functionality between the
receivers. Dead-reckoning is the process used when a GPS receiver loses reception of
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location data from satellites and extrapolates its position based upon a combination of the
last received position data and the velocity of travel at the time of receiving these data.
blue line represents the second sub-route of the planned route, red the sub-route recorded
by the Pangolin GPS receiver and green the sub-route recorded by the smartphone’s GPS
receiver whilst walking the second planned sub-route.
Pangolin’s camera control from orientation data does not have as stringent performance
criteria as the movement control from position data. Unlike augmented reality where
sparse virtual content is superimposed upon a view of a real environment and the virtual
objects must be placed accurately in order for the effect to work well, cross reality
presents a complete virtual environment that is viewed ‘separately’ or side-by-side with
the real environment and thus discrepancies between orientation of real and virtual
environments have a less detrimental effect to the experience.
Although the accuracy of the camera control during the experiments was reported as
being sufficient, the speed at which the camera orientation moved to match physical
orientation was reported as being too slow, resulting in having to wait for the display to
‘catch up’ to changes in orientation. This is attributed to the 10Hz sampling rate of the
orientation sensors which, particularly after readings are combined for smoothing
purposes to reduce jerky movement, resulted in too infrequent orientation updates. Frame
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rates within Pangolin whilst navigating the route averaged between 15 and 20 frames per
second with the viewer’s ‘quality and speed’ slider set to the ‘low’ position
The style of explorative interaction with virtual content that this system employs is more
resilient to input lag and low frame rates than other scenarios of interaction with virtual
content such as fast paced competitive video games including First Person Shooters
(FPS) [20], but overall user experience would nonetheless be improved by a faster
sampling of orientation data and a higher frame rate.
Additionally it should be noted that the cathedral reconstruction was created with
relatively powerful desktop computers in mind as the primary deployment platform and
has not been optimized for use on less powerful mobile platforms such as Pangolin.
Performance of Pangolin on a less graphically complex OpenSim region (Salt Pan 2
[17]), that also depicts a reconstruction of a cultural heritage site, was better at 20 to 25
frames per second at the ‘low’ position and between 15 and 20 frames per second at
‘high’ (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: A plot of Pangolin’s performance (measured in frames per second) against
different graphical settings (selected via the ‘Quality and speed’ slider of the viewer) in
two positions within the Salt Pan 2 region.
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Interpretations
The positional accuracy of 1.02e-04° attained by the Pangolin GPS receiver is sufficient
for the first modality of interaction (that of distinguishing and navigating between
multiple points of interest). This value of 1.02e-04° (analogous to a combination of
±11.3m of North/South inaccuracy or ±6.3m of East/West inaccuracy) represents a
constraint on the granularity of the content; it is the minimum distance required between
any two points of interest for them to be correctly differentiated between.
This same value is not sufficient for the second modality of interaction (that of free
roaming exploration with avatars mimicking their users’ movements as closely as
possible). This modality would require the use of additional position tracking techniques
to improve accuracy to around 1m CEP (analogous to 8.98e-06° latitude or 1.62e-05°
longitude around the location of the St Andrews cathedral).
Use of a GPS receiver that is lower performance than that used by Pangolin, but more
common due to being of the caliber integrated into smartphones and tablets such as that
used in the experiments, is still sufficient for the first modality but with a larger minimum
distance required between any two points of interest. The Hausdorff distance of 1.33e-04°
recorded by the smartphone used in the experiments is analogous to ±14.8m N/S or
±8.2m E/W around the location of the cathedral.
Observed accuracy of the orientation tracking is sufficient for both modalities of
interaction; the accuracy of orientation tracking required does not change with different
positional accuracy and the accuracy of orientation attained in the experiments is
sufficient for an acceptable user experience, however the experience would benefit from
better graphical quality and higher responsiveness to changes in user orientation.
Conclusions
Manifestations of PoSR involving 2D content are commonplace, but whilst the social
allures and educational benefits of 3D environments have been recognized the ability to
forge PoSR situations involving 3D content remains elusive. As development of 3D Web
technologies furthers, the demand for 3D PoSR will grow. The cross reality concept,
when freed from static linking between physical and virtual environments, provides a
technique to address this shortcoming.
This technique has been investigated by the Pangolin virtual world viewer as a mobile,
location and orientation aware cross reality interface to spatially related 3D virtual
environments. Pangolin aimed to provide a platform for furthering previous use of such
3D environments, for allowing students to learn from reconstructions of cultural heritage
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content, by allowing them to interact with such reconstructions whilst simultaneously
exploring the corresponding physical environments.
Performance of position tracking by GPS emerged as a constraint upon the modality of
interaction possible in such systems, with commercially available non-assisted GPS
receivers, of the quality built into smartphones and tablets, capable of sufficient
accuracies for the ‘points of interest’ modality to function correctly but not for the free
roaming exploration modality.
These conclusions hold for today’s commodity technology. We can expect the resolution,
processing power and rendering capability of mobile phones and tablets to continue to
increase for any fixed price point. Similarly, augmented positioning systems providing
greater positional accuracy are likely to emerge. Thus we conclude that the benefits of
having accurate virtual interpretations of historic locations available at the sites in a
mobile fashion will be available for school visits, cultural heritage investigation and
tourists of the future. As mobile 3D cross reality technology becomes common place and
matures, applications in education, entertainment, business and the arts will emerge that
will surprise us all.
References and Notes:
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9. S. Kennedy et al., in Proceedings of the 2nd European Immersive Education Summit
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28. u-blox AG, MAX-6 Product Summary (2012) (available at http://www.ublox.com/images/downloads/Product_Docs/MAX-6_ProductSummary_(GPS.G6-HW10089).pdf).
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Supplementary Materials:
Materials and Methods:
Virtual Environment: The 3D virtual environment component of the Pangolin system was
implemented using the Second Life/OpenSimulator (SL/OpenSim) platform, which provides a 3D
social-oriented multi-user non-competitive virtual environment which focuses on the community,
creation and commerce [21] aspects of many users interacting within a shared space through the
abstraction of avatars, rather than the competitive natures of games and the solitary environments
afforded by simulation and visualization platforms. The distributed client/server model of
SL/OpenSim, wherein 3D content is stored on a grid of servers operated by a multitude of
organizations and distributed to and navigated between by dispersed clients on demand when they
enter a particular region rather than being pre-distributed as is the norm for games, simulations
and visualizations, is analogous to the manner in which 2D social Web content is served from
Web servers to client browsers and apps. This style of content delivery is necessary when
considering the dynamic and ephemeral nature of consumer-generated media which constitutes
the majority of the current 2D social Web and will make up the majority of expanding 3D social
Web content.
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Whilst SL/OpenSim encapsulates many of the desirable architectural features for 3D PoSR
experiments it does not support execution upon familiar mobile platforms (Android/iOS) nor does
it provision for avatar control from sensor data. However the open source nature of the SL viewer
allowed modifications to be effected, enabling control of the avatar and camera from real time
data collected from position and orientation sensors connected to an x86 architecture tablet
computer. This ability to control navigation within the 3D virtual environment without explicit
conscious input of keyboard/mouse/touch commands is integral to reducing the cognitive load
required to maintain a presence within a virtual environment which is a key requirement for
overcoming the vacancy problem and achieving successful mobile cross reality.
As the SL viewer is only available for x86 platforms the choice of user hardware platform for the
experiments was limited, with the MSI WindPad 110W presenting the most promising solution: a
10” tablet computer sporting an AMD Brazos Z01 APU (combining a dual-core x86 CPU and
Radeon HD6250 GPU) [22]. The user’s position was monitored using GPS, a solution which is
well suited to applications of the system within the use case of cultural heritage; such sites often
constitute outdoor ruins at which a clear view of the sky allows for good GPS connectivity. For
use cases where a similar modality of interaction is desired whilst indoors then an indoor
positioning system would be used; a roundup of such technologies is available in [23] and of
particular pertinence is the upcoming IndoorAtlas [24] technology which purports to provide
accurate indoor positioning using only the magnetometers already ubiquitous in today's
smartphones and tablets.
GPS configuration: The 110W features an AzureWave GPS-M16 [25] GPS receiver; however
poor API provision and meager documentation lead to use of a separate u-blox MAX-6 GPS
receiver [26] outfitted with a Sarantel SL-1202 passive antenna [27]. The MAX-6 is of higher
operational specification than the GPS-M16 and supports Satellite Based Augmentation Systems
(SBAS) which improve the accuracy of location data by applying additional correction data
received from networks of satellites and ground-based transmitters separate to those of the GPS
system. These networks include the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service
(EGNOS) that covers the UK where the experiments took place.
The product summary for the MAX-6 claims accuracy of 2.5m Circular Error Probable (CEP)
without SBAS corrections and 2m CEP with SBAS corrections “demonstrated with a good active
antenna” [28]. This means that, in an ideal situation with SBAS correction data available, there
would be 50% certainty that each position reported by the GPS receiver would be within 2m of its
actual position. The SL-1202 antenna used is passive, however as the distance between antenna
and the MAX-6 IC itself in the hardware application is only a few millimeters there would have
been negligible benefit from using an active antenna. However whether the SL-1202 constitutes
‘good’ for achieving the headlining performance characteristics of the MAX-6 is debatable as the
definition of ‘good’ was not provided in the product summary.
The MAX-6 was operated in ‘pedestrian’ dynamic platform model, use of SBAS correction data
was enabled and frequency of readings was set to the maximum of 5Hz.
To determine the real world accuracy attainable with the MAX-6 outfitted with the SL-1202 in
situations akin to those of the cultural heritage case study, a walking route around the St Andrews
cathedral ruins, akin to the route that an individual visitor or school group might take, was
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planned and then walked with the MAX-6 connected to a laptop computer via an Arduino
operating as a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) feeding the raw National
Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) messages into the u-center GPS evaluation software
version 7.0 [29] which logged the messages for later evaluation. Simultaneously for comparative
purposes a mid-range consumer Android smartphone was used to record the same track; a HTC
One S [30] containing a gpsOne Gen 8A solution within its Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor
[31] and using Google’s My Tracks [32] app version 2.0.3 to record the data. The three sets of
positional data (planned route, MAX-6 recorded route and smartphone recorded route) were
entered into a PostgreSQL database [33, 34] and the PostGIS database extender’s
ST_HausdorffDistance algorithm [35] was used to calculate the Hausdorff distances between the
recorded routes and the planned route and between the recorded routes themselves. Because of
the substantially greater inaccuracies identified in the latter part of the recorded tracks, separate
Hausdorff distances were calculated both for the complete tracks and also for truncated first and
second sub-tracks.
GPS to OpenSim conversion: Translating real world positions, obtained via the GPS receiver as
latitude and longitude pairs, into corresponding OpenSim (X,Y) region coordinates is achieved
using the haversine formula [36] from spherical trigonometry. The prerequisites for this approach
are that the OpenSim model is aligned correctly to the OpenSim compass as the real location is
aligned to real bearings (although provision to specify an ‘offset’ within the Pangolin viewer for
non-aligned models would be a trivial addition), that the model was created to a known and
consistent scale and that a single 'anchor point' is known for which both the real world
latitude/longitude and corresponding OpenSim (X,Y) region coordinates are known.
Using the haversine formula the great-circle (or orthodromic) distance between the latitude of the
anchor point and the latitude of the new GPS reading is calculated, then applying the scale of the
model results in the equivalent distance in OpenSim metrics between the Y coordinate of the
anchor point and the Y coordinate of the position corresponding to the new GPS reading.
Repeating the same calculations with the longitude of the new GPS reading provides the distance
between the X coordinate of the anchor point and the X coordinate of the position corresponding
to the new GPS reading. Adding or subtracting these distances as appropriate to the OpenSim
coordinates of the anchor point provides the OpenSim coordinates that correspond to the new
GPS reading, to which the avatar is then instructed to move.
This approach works across OpenSim region boundaries (it is not limited to a single 256x256
meter OpenSim region) and there are no restrictions for the placement of the OpenSim
component of the anchor point (it can be anywhere in any region, movement of the avatar can be
in any direction from it (positive and negative), it does not have to be at the center of the model or
even in a region that the model occupies).
The implementation ignores elevation, due to a combination of the relatively low accuracy of
these data attainable via GPS (when compared to the longitudinal/latitudinal accuracy) and as the
case study explored involved users navigating outdoor ruins remaining at ground level.
Orientation configuration: To control the SL camera in the required fashion, sensor data is
collected for the direction that the user is facing (in terms of magnetic compass bearing) and the
vertical angle (pitch) at which they are holding the tablet. Magnetic compass bearing is sensed
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using a magnetometer and pitch by an accelerometer. Roll data is also captured by the
accelerometer, however it was expected that users would keep the tablet in a roughly horizontal
fashion when interacting with it, thus using these data to control the SL camera’s roll was not
deemed to be beneficial and was not implemented.
The 110W does not feature a magnetometer and its tilt sensor is rudimentary (only useful for
differentiating between discrete cases of landscape and portrait orientation for screen rotation).
Several alternative sensors were auditioned, including the MMA8452, ADXL335, HMC5883L
and eventually the HMC6343 which was adopted for the experiments. The HMC6343 combines a
3-axis magnetometer, 3-axis accelerometer and algorithms to internally apply the accelerometer’s
readings to tilt compensate the magnetometer’s readings; tilt compensation is necessary for an
accurate compass bearing when the device is not held in a perfectly level orientation, such as
when the user tilts it up or down to view content above or below their eye level.
Magnetic declination information was entered into the HMC6343 for the position of the cathedral
and the date of our experiments. The HMC6343’s hard-iron offset calculation feature was used
each time the hardware configuration was altered. The sampling frequency of the HMC6343 was
set to its highest value of 10Hz. Orientation was set to ‘upright front’ to match the physical
orientation of the IC in the experiments.
Interfacing GPS/Orientation hardware with SL: The MAX-6 & HMC6343 were connected to
an Arduino (the setup used throughout the experiments is shown in Figure 8) and a ‘sketch’ (the
name given to programs that execute upon the Arduino platform) written to receive the data from
the ICs, perform simple processing upon them and relay them to the tablet via USB connection
[37]. The TinyGPS library [38] was used to abstract processing of NMEA messages from the
MAX-6 to obtain the required latitude and longitude values.
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Figure 8: The HMC6343, MAX-6 and SL-1202 connected via a breadboard prototyping
shield to the Arduino, in the setup and configuration that was then attached to the rear of
the 110W for the experiments.
Existing SL avatar/camera control interfaces were explored, by for example programming the
Arduino to mimic a standard USB HID joystick, however the granularity of control attainable via
these methods was not sufficient. Thus the SL viewer was modified to make use of the
Boost.Asio C++ library to support receiving data via serial port, giving rise to the Pangolin
viewer, and further modifications were made to the viewer to use these received data to control
the movement of the avatar and camera by directly interfacing with the control functions at a
lower level of abstraction. The viewer’s GUI was modified with the addition of a dialogue that
allows the user to specify the path of the serial device, separately enable or disable sensor-driven
camera and movement control, as well as providing numerous controls for fine-tuning its
behavior, including the ability to specify high-pass filters for avatar movement and specify the
smoothing applied to camera control. This GUI also presents the necessary fields for input of the
anchor point details and fields for diagnostic output of the received information. Figure 9 shows
this GUI within the Pangolin viewer.
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Figure 9: The GUI within the Pangolin viewer that allows administration of the position
and orientation control of the avatar. In this screenshot Pangolin is connected to the
Arduino and is receiving position and orientation data.
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iED 2013
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ISSN 2325-4041
PAPER
Enhancing Learning and Motivation through Surrogate Embodiment in
MUVE-based Online Courses
Author: Saadia A. Khan1,2 *†
Affiliations:
1
Teachers College, Columbia University.
3
Chair, New York Chapter of Immersive Education (iED NY)
*Correspondence to: khan2@tc.columbia.edu
†Department of Human Development, Box 118, Teachers College, Columbia University,
New York, NY 10027.
Abstract:
How can we effectively use multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) to teach online
psychology courses to graduate students? Our previous research findings suggest that
surrogate embodiment in MUVEs enhances learning and motivation more than no
embodiment or traditional classroom learning. Based on these findings, we are currently
investigating if online courses that use MUVEs lead to higher learning gains and more
motivation as compared to traditional online courses that do not use MUVEs. Two
online graduate psychology courses (Cognition and Learning, and Psychology of
Thinking) have been enhanced by having students learn theory and understand core
concepts through activities in a MUVE. Student learning and motivation in these
MUVE-based online courses is being compared with student learning and motivation in
traditional versions of these online courses. Data gathered so far suggest that being
assigned activities in a MUVE improves students’ understanding of core concepts more
than students who do not attempt these activities in a MUVE. This paper includes current
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findings during Phase 1 with examples of surrogate embodiment activities used to help
students learn about problem solving theory as they use their avatars to problem solve in
a virtual environment.
One Sentence Summary: Our findings suggest that MUVE-based online courses
enhance learning and motivation more than traditional online courses.
Introduction
Can educators enhance students’ learning and motivation in online courses by
having them learn as avatars via surrogate embodied learning experiences in multi-user
virtual environments (MUVEs)? How would students enrolled in online courses that
allow them to experience learning through their avatars compare with students enrolled in
traditional online courses that do not use MUVEs and rely only on online discussion
forums? Our previous empirical findings suggest that adult learners learn better when
they experience surrogate embodied learning in a multi-user virtual environment, and
surrogate embodied learning is further enhanced when learners experience positive
embodied affect via virtual affective gestures [1, 2, 3, 4]. In a series of studies, we
presented adult learners with novel historical text, which they learned through different
types of embodiment including surrogate embodiment. When learners’ memory,
comprehension, transfer, and motivation were measured after embodied learning
experiences, it was found that (a) learning and memory were more enhanced when
learners experienced embodied learning as compared to when learners experienced no
embodiment and (b) learning and motivation were further enhanced when positive
embodied affect was combined with surrogate embodiment. These findings support
theories of embodied cognition, which suggest that embodiment involves the reactivation
of multimodal representations and mental simulations involving vision, audition, affect,
and touch, etc [5, 6, 7, 8]. The findings also support previous research findings that
suggest that embodiment facilitates learning and motivation [9-18].
Black et al.’s [12] Instructional Embodiment Framework identifies different types
of embodiment including Surrogate Embodiment (i.e., manipulating a surrogate or agent
such as a virtual avatar), Imagined Embodiment (i.e., imagining actions), and Direct
Embodiment (i.e., physically performing actions). Whereas Direct Embodiment can be
used to help learners in classrooms, Surrogate Embodiment through avatars in virtual
environments can be an effective way of providing distance learners with embodied
learning experiences. However, traditional online courses based mostly on online
discussion forums rarely provide learners with surrogate embodied experiences. In an
ongoing project, we are investigating whether or not learners learn better and have higher
motivation in enhanced online courses that provide learners with surrogate embodied
learning experiences via avatars in MUVEs than in traditional online courses that do not
provide learners with surrogate embodied learning experiences in MUVEs.
Adult graduate students enrolled in online psychology courses at Teachers
College, Columbia University find online courses particularly hard. The general
complaint is that there is a lot of reading, and the text-based online discussion forums that
these courses rely upon do not help all students understand core concepts. Therefore, we
have chosen two very popular psychology courses at Teachers College, Columbia
University, which have very high enrollment throughout the year, and we are offering
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two versions of the courses. One version is the traditional online discussion forum-based
course while the other version is an enhanced online course that is MUVE-based. The
project, which is currently in its initial phase, involves building virtual environments to
teach psychology theory to adult graduate students in MUVE-based online courses.
During Phase 1, we have used various MUVE-based surrogate learning activities along
with discussion forums to help enhance students’ learning and motivation. Our initial
findings suggest that students enrolled in the MUVE-based online course report higher
levels of understanding, confidence, and enjoyment than students enrolled in the
traditional online course.
Method
Participants
Forty-eight (N = 48) female (28) and male (20) adult graduate students, 21 years and
older, enrolled in two versions of an online psychology course, Human Cognition and
Learning, were examined. Twenty-five (17 females and 8 males) were enrolled in the
MUVE-based online version of the course and twenty-three (11 females and 12 males)
were enrolled in the traditional online version of the course.
Procedure
Two Human Cognition and Learning courses were offered online. One version used
MUVEs along with a discussion forum. The other version did not use MUVEs; it used
only a discussion forum. The topic examined was Problem Solving, which was taught
asynchronously in both versions of the online course in a session that lasted for one
week. Constructivist principles were used for instruction. Students in both courses
were given the same reading material on problem solving [19], which consisted of
theory and important research findings about problem solving. Students were also
given a PowerPoint presentation, which they were asked to view. After this, they were
given two open-ended questions about problem solving, which they were asked to
respond to. These questions tested for students’ understanding of theory and
application of theory. Students in both courses were asked to respond to the questions
by the fifth day of the week, and they were asked to respond to and analyze other
students’ discussion posts by the seventh day of the week. All students were told to
respond to at least two posts by other students. The two groups differed in that the
MUVE-based group was given an activity that needed to be completed as an avatar in a
MUVE while the traditional online group was not assigned this activity. The MUVE
activity required students to create their avatar, explore the Teachers College virtual
region, TC Educator, and change their avatar’s appearance. See Figures 1 to 10.
During the activity, they were told to observe their problem solving strategies, and
write down how they problem solved at different points during the activity.
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Figure 1. A Student’s Avatar Reads Information about Teachers College.
Figure 2. A Student Chooses a Mouse as an Avatar in the MUVE-based Online Course.
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Figure 3. The Student’s Mouse Avatar Dances in the Student Lounge.
Figure 4. A Student’s Robot Avatar in the Student Lounge.
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Figure 5. Student Avatars in the MUVE-based Online Course.
Figure 6. A Student’s Avatar on the Teachers College Island, TC Educator.
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Figure 7. A Student’s Avatar Interacts with a Snowman.
Figure 8. A Student’s Avatar Flies above the Teachers College Building.
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Figure 9. A Student’s Avatar in the Cafe inside Teachers College.
Figure 10. A Student’s Cat Avatar in the Library.
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Measures
Data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Students’ initial replies to the openended problem solving questions were coded for comprehension in terms of whether or
not they demonstrated an understanding of problem solving theory by answering the
questions correctly. Maximum total score was 20. Apart from students’ understanding
of core concepts related to problem solving, other dependent variables of interest were
students’ confidence in their learning and their enjoyment. All students were asked to
report (a) if they believed that they knew problem solving theory well by the end of the
week (i.e., confidence), and (b) whether or not they enjoyed the session (i.e., enjoyment).
Both measures were assessed through a response scale that ranged from high to low.
Students were required to indicate their degree of confidence (high, medium, low) and
their level of enjoyment (high, medium, low).
Results
Multivariate tests results of Type of Online Course (with MUVE-based Online Course
and Traditional Online Course) as fixed factor and comprehension, confidence, and
enjoyment as dependent variables were found to be statistically significant, Wilks’ Λ =
.317, F(3, 44) = 31.650, p < .001, η2 = .683, indicating that the two types of online
courses differed significantly. Univariate tests results were found to be statistically
significant for all three dependent variables at the .001 alpha level. The results indicated
that students enrolled in the MUVE-based online course demonstrated significantly better
understanding of problem solving theory than students enrolled in the traditional online
course, F(1, 46) = 45.405, p < .001, η2 = .497. In addition, students in the MUVE-based
online course scored higher on confidence than students in the traditional online course,
F(1, 46) = 47.894, p < .001, η2 = .510 and they scored higher on enjoyment than students
in the traditional online course, F(1, 46) = 55.955, p < .001, η2 = .549. Overall, it
seemed that surrogate embodiment through an avatar in a MUVE was related to students’
understanding, confidence, and enjoyment. See Figure 11.
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Figure 11. Comprehension, Confidence, and Enjoyment Mean Scores by Type of
Course.
Discussion
Our results suggest that using surrogate embodiment in MUVEs can facilitate adult
learners’ comprehension and understanding of psychology theory. This supports our
previous findings as well as empirical findings by other researchers that suggest that
MUVEs provide learners with engaging experiences in dynamic environments that help
enhance their learning and motivation. Students enrolled in the MUVE-based online
course reported a significantly higher level of confidence in their learning than students
enrolled in the traditional online course. It seemed from their responses that these
students were more aware of the problem solving strategies they were employing as they
answered the questions than students who were not enrolled in the MUVE-based online
course. These students appeared to be more aware of their own learning process, which
was not apparent in the responses of students enrolled in the traditional online course.
They also seemed to be analyzing other students’ responses more deeply than the
students who did not experience surrogate embodiment. The enjoyment experienced and
reported seemed to be related to the MUVE experience. Students’ responses indicated
that the surrogate embodiment activity facilitated their understanding of problem solving
theory and they applied the theory during the surrogate embodiment activity. Students
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analyzed the problem solving strategies they used during their surrogate experience in the
MUVE and they were able to apply theory to respond to the questions asked. In that
sense, students in the MUVE-based online course also seemed to display transfer of
learning, although that data has not yet been formally analyzed quantitatively.
Conclusion and Implications
The results presented here are only preliminary results of one topic (problem solving)
during the first phase of this research project. A large amount of data has been gathered,
which could not be analyzed due to time constraints. This paper only contains data
related to one session on problem solving taught in two versions of the course, Human
Cognition and Learning. The results indicate that adult learners learned better, had
higher levels of confidence in their learning, and enjoyed learning more when online
courses were enhanced with surrogate embodiment experiences in a MUVE. This has
implications for teaching online courses through surrogate embodiment in MUVEs.
More research is needed on how immersive technologies such as MUVEs can be used
more effectively in online courses. We are currently continuing the project to further
investigate learning as avatars in MUVEs in online courses.
References:
1. S. A. Khan, J. B. Black, Surrogate embodied learning in MUVEs: Enhancing memory
and motivation through embodiment. Journal of Immersive Education (in press).
2. S. A. Khan, J. B. Black, Enhancing learning and motivation through positive
embodied affect and surrogate embodiment in virtual environments. Paper to be
presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
San Francisco, California, April 2013.
3. S. A. Khan, J. B. Black, Learning world history through role-play: A comparison of
surrogate embodiment and physical embodiment. Paper presented at the Sixth
Annual Subway Summit on Cognition and Education Research, Teachers College,
Columbia University, New York, NY, 2013.
4. S. A. Khan, J. B. Black, Surrogate embodied learning, paper presented at the Fifth
Annual Subway Summit on Cognition and Education Research, Fordham University,
New York, NY, 27 January 2012.
5. L. W. Barsalou, Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology 59, 617-645
(2008).
6. L. W. Barsalou, in Embodied Grounding Social Cognitive Affective and
Neuroscientific Approaches, G. R. Semin, E. R. Smith, Eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press,
New York, 2008), pp. 9-42.
7. A. M. Glenberg, in Embodied Grounding Social Cognitive Affective and
Neuroscientific Approaches, G. R. Semin, E. R. Smith, Eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press,
New York, 2008), pp. 43-70.
8. D. A. Havas, A. M. Glenberg, M. Rinck, Emotion simulation during language
comprehension. Psychonomic Bulletin Review 14, 436-441 (2007).
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9. A. M. Glenberg, T. Gutierrez, J. R. Levin, S. Japuntich, M. P. Kaschak, Activity and
imagined activity can enhance young children’s reading comprehension. Journal of
Educational Psychology 96, 424-436 (2004).
10. R. Beun, E. de Vos, C. Witteman, in Intelligent Virtual Agents, Rist et al., Eds.
(Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2003).
11. N. Bianchi-Berthouze, W. W. Kim, D. Patel, Does body movement engage you more
in digital game play? And why? Lecture Notes In Computer Science, 4738, 102-113
(2007).
12. J. B. Black, A. Segal, J. Vitale, C. Fadjo, in Theoretical Foundations of Learning
Environments, D. Jonassen, S. Land, Eds. (Routledge, New York, 2011), pp. 1-34.
13. P. C. Blumenfeld, T. M. Kempler, J. S. Krajcik, in The Cambridge Handbook of
Learning Sciences, R. K. Sawyer, Ed. (Cambridge University Press, New York,
2006).
14. J. Clarke, C. Dede, Making learning meaningful: An exploratory study of using multiuser environments (MUVEs) in middle school science, paper presented at annual
meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada, 2005.
15. C. Dede, D. Ketelhut, Design-based research on a museum-based multi-user virtual
environment, paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational
Research Association, Chicago, IL, 2003.
16. J. Hammer, G. Andrews, Z. Zhou, J. Black, C. Kinzer, Learning and video games: A
process preparation for future learning approach, paper presented at the Game
Developers Conference, San Francisco, CA, 8 March 2007.
17. D. Li, S. Kang, C. Lu, I. Han, J. Black, in Proceedings of World Conference on
Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2009, C. Fulford, G.
Siemens, Eds. (AACE, Chesapeake, VA, 2009), pp. 2209-2216.
18. S. J. Metcalf, A. Kamarainen, T. A. Grotzer, C. J. Dede, Ecosystem science learning
via multi-user virtual environments, paper presented at the American Educational
Research Association National Conference, New Orleans, LA, 2011.
19. J. R. Anderson, Cognitive psychology and its implications (Worth Publishers, New
York, 2010).
Acknowledgments: The study is a part of a research project that is based on Saadia A.
Khan’s doctoral dissertation. It is partially supported by the Teachers College, Columbia
University Provost’s fund awarded to John B. Black, Chair Department of Human
Development. Saadia A. Khan is the principal investigator of the research project. The
two online psychology courses being investigated are Human Cognition and Learning
and Psychology of Thinking, which are taught by Saadia A. Khan at Teachers College,
Columbia University. The current paper presents one case from Human Cognition and
Learning.
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iED 2013
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ISSN 2325-4041
PAPER
Promoting Engagement and Complex Learning on OpenSim
Authors: L. Tarouco1,*, B. Avila1, E. Amaral1,2
Affiliations:
1
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
2
Universidade Federal dos Pampas.
*Correspondence to: liane@penta.ufrgs.br
Abstract:
The intellectual demands of the 21st century require more advanced skills. Students,
workers, and citizens must be able to solve multifaceted problems by thinking creatively
and generating original ideas from multiple sources of information. This integration of
knowledge, skills, and attitudes and the coordination of qualitatively different constituent
skills result from what is being called complex learning. Learning to solve problems is a
special kind of learning that requires different forms of teaching and learning support.
The advance of social networking has entailed a considerable progress in the
development of virtual worlds where humans cohabit with other users through their
avatars and become also able to operate virtual devices. Virtual worlds offer a wide range
of possibilities in terms of functionalities for creating problem situations to be solved by
learners. This article presents results of the evaluation of a particular virtual world, Open
Simulator, regarding the functionalities provided to handle virtual devices and analyzes
the possible ways of handling the visualizations built in the virtual environment in terms
of engagement taxonomy.
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One Sentence Summary: Analysis of functionalities for building a learning environment
to support problem-solving situations on OpenSim in order to promote complex thinking.
Introduction
The intellectual demands of the 21st century require more advanced skills, 21st century
skills. Students, workers, and citizens must be able to solve multifaceted problems by
thinking creatively and generating original ideas from multiple sources of information
[1]. Studies point out that the best learning process occurs when basic skills are taught in
combination with complex thinking skills.
New technology and global competition have changed the game for 21st century
workers and, consequently, the learning process must change to reflect the complexity of
the real world and the social relations that take place in it: multiple interactions among
people, technologies, purposes, environments where sometimes they move and act more
in a virtual space than in a real presence context. Social networks have become a key part
of the global online experience and are becoming the most used service on the net. The
advance of social networking has entailed a considerable progress in the development of
virtual worlds where humans cohabit with other users through their avatars and become
also able to operate virtual devices. Teaching and learning in this new scenario has new
possibilities to promote complex learning. Complex learning involves integrating
knowledge, skills, attitudes and coordinating different skills, which results in the ability
of transferring what is learned to real-world problem solving. This is better favored when
the learning environment allows tasks to be learned based in a context that is more
similar to real life. That is a possibility that an immersive environment potentially brings
about, and it also provides support for cooperative work aiming at collaborative problem
solving and learning by doing. Virtual worlds provide a combination of simulation tools,
sense of immersion and opportunities for communication and collaboration that have a
great potential for their application in education. Also, virtual worlds allow manageable
representations of abstract entities to be created and, thus, help students construct mental
models by direct observation and experimentation. These unique characteristics of virtual
worlds, such as immersion, handling and rich feedback, allow for an enhanced and rich
interactivity that mimics the real world and is able to promote complex learning.
The technology available nowadays for implementing virtual worlds, especially in
the case of non-commercial systems, such as Open Simulator, is analyzed in this paper
regarding the functionalities provided to build a rich interactive learning environment in
order to engage students in learning tasks for the promotion of complex learning [2].
Facilities to present multimedia resources in order to add rich and supportive
information about the basic knowledge needed, as well as procedures, are important and
were tested in this work in terms of performance and limitations. Another focus of the
research was related to the potential use of virtual worlds as constructivist learning
environments where users are supposed to build tools to be operated by others and
possibly integrated to form more complex tools. Avatar interactivity strategies [3] with a
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tool and relation with complex learning were analyzed as well as implementation
approaches favored by OpenSim. The last aspect to be addressed concerns
interoperability with real world devices with the purpose to combine the Internet of
Things [4], allowing Human-to-Thing interconnection, which was another strategy
investigated in order to bring real world information into the virtual world.
1. Complex Thinking and Engagement Taxonomy
Complex learning aims at the integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes and
the coordination of qualitatively different constituent skills, as well as the transfer of what
is learned to daily life or work settings. In this sense, authentic learning tasks that are
based on real-life tasks constitute a driving force for such complex learning [4]. In this
process, Merriënboer [5] predicts that, in addition to a sound cognitive basis, students
must develop technical and social skills to become able to solve problems of which the
complexity level must increase as new abilities are developed. Davies [6] suggests that
this ability must be combined with digital/technological fluency in order to prepare
students to act as 21st century citizens.
The pursuit of an environment able to give rise to learning interactions in order to
meet these requirements leads to immersive environments, in which it is possible to
enable interactions with multimedia resources that can make students engage in a
complex learning process similar to that of the real world. The search for interaction
strategies to be offered to students in this environment includes outlining an environment
with multimedia elements by which different ways of interaction are enabled. The
engagement taxonomy proposition suggested by Myller [7] was used as the basis for the
analysis of possible interactions in the immersive environment under study, OpenSim.
The Extended Engagement Taxonomy proposed by Myller establishes forms of
interaction with visual resources, giving rise to different levels of student engagement.
Table 1 shows the proposal for this classification of engagement levels. Starting with the
initial category, where there would be no visualization (inexistent in the immersive
virtual world, which is visual by nature), each subsequent category leads to greater
engagement. The taxonomy proposes student authorship as the highest level of
engagement.
Level
Description
T1
No Viewing
T2
Viewing
T3
Controlled
viewing
T4
Entering input
T5
Responding
T6
Changing
Visualization is allowed to be changed, for instance, by direct manipulation,
while it is viewed.
T7
Modifying
Visualization is modified before it is viewed, for example, by changing the
source code or an input set.
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No visualization to be viewed, material in textual format only.
Visualization with no interaction
Visualization is viewed and the students control visualization, for example, by
selecting objects to inspect or by changing the speed of the animation
The student enters input into a program/script or parameters into a script
before or during their execution.
Visualization is accompanied by questions related to its content
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T8
Constructing
Visualization is created interactively by the student with the use of
components such as text and geometric shapes.
T9
Presenting
Visualizations are presented and explained to others for feedback and
discussion.
T10
Reviewing
Visualizations are viewed for the purpose of providing comments, suggestions
and feedback on the visualization itself or on the program or script.
Table 1. Modified Extended Engagement Taxonomy [7]
By combining these two proposals it is possible to see that, in virtual worlds, there
are conditions for simulating a context closer to the real world, but students’ strategies to
interact with the real world must be outlined to boost student engagement. In order to
analyze possibilities and limitations of providing the interactive elements stipulated in the
engagement taxonomy, ways of supplying them in the context of the Open Simulator
environment were tested. This environment was selected due to the fact that it is provided
in an open and free way, which allows for the possibility of occasional contributions so as
to add new functionalities. It should be noted that OpenSim does not have the stability of
commercially available environments yet; however, it offers basic conditions for
experimentation and testing of functionalities as intended in the study.
2. Engagement levels in an immersive environment
In virtual worlds, by and large, the lowest instance of the Extended Engagement
Taxonomy to be considered is the T2 level, which corresponds to the visualization of the
study object without any interaction with it. Nevertheless, the movement of avatars
immediately offers a T3 category interaction, as it makes it possible to approach the
visualized element and allows for different observation angles. The T4 category
interaction can be easily implemented, since the script language used to define the
behavior of elements in the virtual world accepts data that can be typed by the user into
the chat window. Then, this information can be used both for changing element behavior,
shifting its trajectory and movement speed, and for its aspect. Color can be changed by
using the commands llSetColor, and position and rotation by the commands llSetPos and
llSetRot. It is also possible to change the size and even the shape of the element.
T5 level interactions can be enabled in many ways. The script associated with the
element can interact with the user via messages with queries, receive replies and provide
feedback. The command llSay allows text messages to be sent, which are displayed in the
virtual world setting. But it is also possible to associate an element with texture such as a
webpage where one or more questions are displayed to be answered by the student and
the feedback of which will be provided on the page itself (through some embedded code).
A T6 or T7 level interaction can be obtained by using scripts that promote the
modification of an element by the way it is touched by the avatar (action triggered by the
event received via the command touch). Alternatively, one can present animations or
manageable graphs created with authoring software such as Geogebra, using Java, Flash
HTML5, etc., as illustrated in Figure 2 [8]. These types of contents are to be displayed on
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the surface of an element in the virtual world with which they are associated as texture, as
is the case of the T5 category interaction.
Figure 1. Laboratory for teaching Derivatives on OpenSim [8]
For T8 category interactions, the student finds in the virtual world the possibility
of creating elements from a set of basic geometric shapes and importing more complex
elements built externally with other authoring tools, such as Sketch Up or others. The
possibility of creating and modifying a behavior associated with the created elements can
be made easier by using script-generating environments like Scratch for OpenSim or
Scriptastic. These environments, which employ block-based visual programming, are
easily learned by users, albeit limited. The next step involves the use of script editors
such as LSL Editor to create and/or change scripts.
To enable T9 and T10 category interactions, the environment provides the
possibility for a user, through his/her avatar, to demonstrate the functioning or behavior
of the elements he/she created, configured and programmed, also allowing other users,
represented in the environment by their respective avatars, to handle them. Interactions
on the chat window can serve as a vehicle for this communication. Additionally, the user
can make the elements created by him/her available in the environment itself, allowing
other users to use them or reuse their parts by editing the elements in order to adapt them
for purposes other than those initially intended. However, there are also repositories
outside the virtual world in which the created elements can be stored and downloaded for
inclusion in other worlds.
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4. Examples and results
The development of elements on OpenSim that are able to offer the previously
described interaction options produced the results illustrated in the next figures. Figure 1
showed settings of an environment created for teaching Derivatives. Screens with
textures presenting information, exercises and manageable simulations were used for
creating a learning space that students consider engaging. In Figure 2, results from
another virtual laboratory [9] are shown in which virtual elements are combined with
information from the real world. In this case, a camera activated by movement detection
produces images that are captured and stored on a server and directly displayed in the
virtual world. Other devices, such as a scale and a pressure gauge, also produce realworld data, but these are treated outside the virtual world, and the results are used to
configure elements that show representations of what is being measured to users. This
experiment showed that it is possible to integrate signaling and/or data from other
devices, allowing a number of devices to be associated with the virtual world and
networked in accordance with the Internet of Things trend.
Figure 2. Real-world interaction in the Internet of Things context
This ability of dynamically interacting with reality brings about a range of
possibilities for the development of learning solutions, with better contextualization of
real tasks. This may stimulate the student’s ability to solve problems with a higher degree
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of complexity, as the incoming data derive from appropriating devices that capture
information and signaling straight from the real world. The process and handling of this
rich range of information by the student will require that the student integrate all
knowledge amassed on a particular topic with the experiences that are enabled in the
virtual world.
Such attributes turn virtual worlds into fruitful spaces for carrying out activities
intended for the exploration of demands from a real context, which enhances the
formation of Complex Thinking. As for the engagement levels attained through the
indicated resources, both reach the highest levels in the Extended Engagement
Taxonomy. Regarding the Derivatives Lab, shown in Figure 1, activities encompassing
the T3, T7, T8, T9 and T10 levels are highlighted. Similarly, interaction with the real
world, represented by Figure 2, enables activities with a high engagement level, which
may potentially contribute to the formation of Complex Thinking through elements
involving the knowledge and skills required for this.
Students themselves may create screenplays, like the one presented in Figure 3
but this requires some training for script development in LSL language.
Figure 3. Communication activity between objects
The example in Figure 3 shows the result of a training activity for teachers, who, after a
28-hour course, were assigned to develop a script for two elements included in the virtual
world that would interact with each other in a sort of game. At each step, data were
produced by the script of one of the elements (e.g., the cat), which were transmitted to the
other element (the dog). Depending on the data exchanged via the command llListen,
either one scored in the game.
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This is an exercise that stimulates students to perceive the connection among the
elements constituting the virtual world, in addition to demonstrating that the actions
generated in the world can be programmed to take place independently of any
intervention by the avatar that represents them. The development of the scripts for this
situation was a challenge for the participants that had never before worked with the LSL
scripting language. But they all managed to do it combining previous examples presented
in the course.
5. Conclusions
In using the metaverse technology, a wide range of possibilities is perceived for
the design of educational objects. The choice of the tool Open Simulator resulted from
the countless advantages provided by this solution, but as this environment is still under
development, some instability is noticed in its operation. The version used was OpenSim
0.7.5, which has a few drawbacks as follows:
1. Because OpenSim derives from Second Life (SL), its implementation needs all
SL resources to be made available, but depending on the viewer used
(Imprudence or Hippo Viewer), some options presented on the command menus
for this application are not useable, as these are Second Life functionalities that
are not available on OpenSim yet.
2. Importing 3-D objects to OpenSim poses mishaps. Some elements imported along
with certain viewers are viewed in an incomplete or simplified way, different
from what one would expect to obtain from the presentation of that particular
element in the creation tool or repository that originated it. Therefore, the same
element can be viewed differently on the Firestorm and Imprudence viewers.
3. The use of audio resources for communication between avatars on OpenSim,
despite being described as a permitted solution, is not available yet.
This investigation demonstrated the possibilities and limitations of a virtual world
such as OpenSim for implementing interactions with elements that can be built thereon.
The analysis sought to ascertain if and how it would possible to offer interaction
possibilities able to attain the levels of engagement proposed in Myller’s extended
engagement taxonomy [7].
Combining these elements with real-world external devices enabled the
integration of the virtual world with the real world through the Internet of Things, which
allows a richer and more realistic contextualization to be brought to the virtual world.
The combination of a more realistic, contextualized and engaging immersive
environment is the basis for the formation of complex thinking as proposed by
Merriënboer [2].
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References:
1. Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB), Committee on
Information Technology Literacy and National Research Council, Being Fluent with
Information Technology. National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC 1999.
2. J. G. Van Merriënboer, P.A, Kirschner, Ten Steps to Complex Learning. New York:
Routledge, 2013.
3. J. Blascovich; J. Bailenson. Avatars, eternal life, new worlds and the dawn of the
virtual revolution: Infinite Reality. New York: HarperCollins, 2011.
4. T. Zhang. The Internet of Things Promoting Higher Education Revolution. In: Fourth
International Conference on Multimedia Information Networking and Security, n 4,
Guangzhou: 2012, p. 790-793.
5. J. G. Van Merriënboer, P.A, Kirschner, L. Kester , L. (2003). Taking the load off a
learner’s mind: Instructional design for complex learning. Educational Psychology.
38: 5–13.
6. A, Davies, D. Fidler, M. Gorbis. Future Work Skills 2020. Palo Alto: Institute for the
future for the University of Phoenix Research Institute. 19 p. Disponível em:
<http://www.iftf.org/our-work/global-landscape/work/future-work-skills-2020/>.
Accessed on March 24, 2013.
7. N. Myller, R, Bednarik, E. Sutinen, Extending the Engagement Taxonomy: Software
Visualization and Collaborative Learning. Transactions on Computing Education,
Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 1-27, mar. 2009.
8. Authors. VEGA - Virtual Environment for Geometry Acquaintance. In: iED 2012
proceedings, Immersive Education Initiative, 2012, Boston, MA. Available:
http://JiED.org
9.
Authors, Internet of Things in healthcare: Interoperatibility and security issues.
(ICC), 2012 IEEE International Conference on Communications. 6121 – 6125 Ottawa
10-15 June 2012
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iED 2013
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ISSN 2325-4041
PAPER
From Metaverse to MOOC: Can the Cloud meet
Scalability Challenges for Open Virtual Worlds?
Authors: Colin Allison*1, Iain Oliver1, Alan Miller1, C.J. Davies1, John McCaffery1
Affiliations:
1
School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SX, UK
* Correspondence to: ca@st-andrews.ac.uk
Abstract:
The use of immersive 3D virtual worlds for education continues to grow due to their
potential for creating innovative learning environments and their enormous popularity
with students. However, scalability remains a major challenge. Whereas MOOCs cope
with tens of thousands of users downloading or streaming learning materials, the highly
interactive, multi-user nature of virtual worlds is far more demanding - supporting even a
hundred users in the same region at the same time is considered an achievement.
However, if the normal number of concurrent users is relatively low and there is only an
occasional need to have a large group in-world at the same time for a special event can
the Cloud be used for supporting these high, but short-lived, peaks in demand? This
paper develops a context for the deployment of immersive education environments in the
Cloud and presents performance results of Cloud-based virtual world hosting.
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One Sentence Summary: Can the Cloud be used on a demand basis for meeting fixed
periods of high load in virtual worlds?
Introduction
Several factors are contributing to the growth of the use of immersive 3D virtual worlds
for education: the advances in capabilities and reductions in cost of widely available
personal computers – their graphics performance for example; the emergence of open
source platforms such as OpenSim [1] and RealXtend [2] for creating and deploying
virtual worlds; the availability of free high quality client viewers such as Phoenix [3]; and
the increase in suitable bandwidths for arbitrary connections to virtual world servers
across the Internet.
The educational potential of these technologies for creating
innovative learning environments is evidenced by a growing number of case studies,
publications, workshops and conferences on the topic; and most importantly, the
popularity of virtual worlds with students and pupils. In addition, virtual world software
is now being regarded as the vanguard of the 3D Web. The existing 2D Web has enabled
major advances in many aspects of online learning – anytime, anywhere access,
downloadable learning objects, online shared learning environments, collaboration tools
for peer learning, global reach and, as MOOCs have recently demonstrated, a very
significant scalability of courses which use a small number of well understood types of
online learning resources.
To realize the potential of immersive education and progress towards virtual worlds for a
3D Web, as easy to access and use as the 2D Web, there are several challenges to
overcome. These include suitable tools for content creation, programmability, support
for the management of immersive environments in educational scenarios, initial
download times on arrival, erratic accessibility due to firewalls, integration with the 2D
Web, and the complexity of certain user interfaces [4].
Scalability also presents a major challenge and is the main motivation for the work
reported in this paper. Whereas in the case of MOOCs it is feasible to set up web sites
that cope with tens of thousands of users downloading learning materials, the highly
interactive, multi-user nature of virtual worlds is far more demanding; supporting even a
hundred users in the same region at the same time is rarely possible. As is often the case
with online learning environments the normal, or average number of users is relatively
low – between one and ten for example – but the need to have a whole class in-world at
the same time for an induction session, a demonstration or some other special event
requires supporting an order of magnitude more users, albeit for a relatively short period.
Provisioning sufficient hardware to meet peak demands is clearly not cost-effective, so
how best to meet this recurring requirement?
One of the main attractions of Cloud computing is the flexibility of using varying
amounts of computing resources in accordance with need. In particular, the
Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) model suggests that rather than having to provision
local hardware that can cope with occasional high peaks in demand the Cloud can be
used for obtaining large amounts of computing power for a few hours while it is needed,
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paying for it pro rata, then relinquishing it again. The question naturally arises: can the
Cloud IAAS model be exploited for relatively heavily attended events in a virtual world?
This paper proceeds by: i) giving some examples of how open virtual worlds are being
successfully used for immersive education; ii) outlining the design of a suitable
benchmark for predicting performance with different avatar loads; iii) applying these
benchmarks on a local server hardware, virtual machines and the Cloud.
Open Virtual Worlds in Education
Figure 1. Routing Island: students can model and build networks and then interactively
modify them to observe how routing algorithms recalculate forwarding tables.
We distinguish between virtual worlds in general and Open Virtual Worlds (OVW). The
latter imply that like a MOOC, these are freely accessible educational resources available
across the Internet. In addition the underlying software is typically open source and free
to use. OVW for learning have been created to support a wide variety of topics including
Internet routing [5](Fig. 1), cultural heritage [6] [7](Fig. 2), archaeology [8], WiFi
experimentation [9], electro-magnetic theory [10] , programming algorithms [11], HCI
[12], space science [13] and humanitarian aid [14].
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Figure 2. A 3D immersive reconstruction of St Andrews Cathedral circa 1318 (top) is
used in the Schools History curriculum and for public exhibitions. The lower image is the
Cathedral as it is today. School pupils combine trips to the ruins with visits to the virtual
reconstruction.
Part of the motivation for using OVW is that students and pupils readily engage with
them, often more so than with conventional learning materials and contexts [15]. Second
Life was pioneering in its global reach but it was not designed for education and several
commentators have highlighted problem areas that arise when using it for that purpose
[16]. These include: commercial cost, code size restrictions, age restrictions, unwanted
adult content and other distractions, difficulty of coursework marking due to the
permissions system, quality of experience due to remote servers, firewall blocking by
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campus computing services, a lack of facilities for copying and sharing content and
backing up work outside of the virtual world. Other issues arise – those of ethics, trust,
privacy – and the technological barriers to running a class with software which does not
scale. In recent years OpenSim [1] has increasingly displaced Second Life (SL) as the
platform of choice for developing immersive learning environments. OpenSim is an
open source project which uses the same protocol as Second Life so is compatible with
any SL compatible viewer/client including the SL viewer itself and others such as
Phoenix [3]. This software compatibility has resulted in a de facto standard for Virtual
Worlds and has meant that OpenSim offers a natural progression from Second Life for
educationalists.
While OpenSim offers solutions to many of the significant drawbacks encountered with
Second Life - commercial cost, age restrictions, land constraints, content sharing and
backup - there are features (or the lack thereof) inherited from Second Life which act as
barriers to a wider adoption of Open Virtual Worlds in education. In this paper we focus
on the problem of scalability. The following section details the development of a testbed
for OVWs that can estimate the number of simultaneous users a particular OVW can
accommodate before the quality of experience for the users deteriorates below what is
acceptable.
Development of a Framework for Testing Scalability
The key question is: how many avatars can any particular virtual world support before
their quality of experience (QoE) degrades to the point of non-usefulness? In order to
develop a framework for carrying out evaluations of scenarios that will answer that
question we need to know: i) how to characterize typical avatar behavior; ii) how to
simulate avatars; and iii) what is a meaningful metric to indicate QoE?
In order to capture typical avatar behaviour two sets of observations were made with 8
users and 33 users respectively. Each test had 3 runs and each run lasted for 10 minutes.
In this experiment the users’ avatars spend 80 to 90 percent of their time standing and
doing nothing as described in [17]. The remainder of the time was spent walking around.
Four measurements were derived from the traces: Frames per Second (FPS), Physics
Frame Per Second (PFPS), Frame Time (FT), and Physics Frame Time (PFT). The data
collected is summarized in [18] and strongly suggests the Frame Time better reflects the
load escalation caused by increases in avatars than the FPS metric. Accordingly we chose
a frame time metric as a better representation of the server load generated by numbers of
users.
The next stage involved creating automated loads. Various different types of bots were
created. These were modified Second Life clients that used libOpenMetaverse to connect
to and interact with the OpenSim server. The two bots most closely aligned with humancontrolled avatars behaved as follows:
Walk-2:
a 20 second walk followed by an 80 second walk in random direction
Walk-Rest 1: a 20 second walk in a random direction followed by 80 seconds of standing still
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In addition, the bots had inventories and were clothed to make the experimental
environment closer to a human controlled experience. After detailed tests it was found
that Walk-2 was the closest match to human controlled avatars.
The framework used the following methods, software and hardware. The software
consisted of OpenSim version 0.7.1 running in Grid mode, using MySQL on Ubuntu
Linux version 11.04. The server is started using a script before the bots are connected
and is later stopped after all the bots have disconnected. The server had 10GB RAM, and
an Intel Xeon 4-core X3430 quad processor running at 2.4 GHz.
The in-world measures of load were gathered using a customized client built using the
libOpenMetaverse library. The monitor and the simulators were run on separate
workstations to eliminate overhead on server. The workstation OS was openSUSE 11.3
using Mono to run .Net components. The monitor workstation collected data from the
OpenSim server every 3 seconds. (The statistics gathered by the monitor client are
generated by the server and sent out to all clients.) The bots were distributed over a
number of client workstations, so that the load on any one would not affect the behavior
of the bots or their load on the server. Through tests it was established that a maximum of
25 bots could be run on a single workstation. The maximum number of bots used in the
experiments was 100, which required 4 workstations. The workstations had 4GB RAM
and core-2 quad Q6600 processors running at 2.4 GHz. mined to most closely
approximate the same load on.
The bots used were of the type that mostly closely approximated the load on the server
generated by a human-controlled avatar (Walk-2). In the experiments the number of bots
was increased by 5 for each iteration. Each run was repeated 3 times. The bots were
connected to the server with a 20 second gap between starting each bot. All of the bots
for a run were connected to the server before the system was allowed to run for 700
seconds. This collected more than 200 values from the monitor. The monitor was then
disconnected. The next section shows how results originally reported in [17] compare
with new measurements from the Amazon ec2 Cloud.
OVW Performance in the Cloud
The following types of machine were used in these tests. Metal (Xeon 4-core as described
above). XEN Dom0 and XEN DomU – two variations of the XEN virtual machine [19]
running on the Metal hardware. Xen is reportedly used in the Amazon Web Services
(AWS) Cloud. Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) a feature of the Linux kernel [20] that
supports virtualization. Again, this was run on the Metal hardware. Virtual Box - an
Oracle virtualization product for “home and enterprise use”[21]. The AWS machine
instance was picked to closely match the specification of the local Metal configuration. It
is a “first generation” extra-large instance: “m1.xlarge”, running Ubuntu. OpenSim and
MySQL were installed and the same eversion of Cathedral Island that was used in the
non-Cloud test runs. m1.xlarge is described as: “15 GB memory, 8 EC2 Compute Units”
(4 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each) [22].
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Figures 3 and 4 compare the measured performance in Frames per Second and Frame
Time across these platforms using the framework described above. The OVW used was a
version of Cathedral Island (see Fig.2).
Figure 3. FPS against numbers of avatars; less than 30 is generally
regarded as a poor Quality of Experience for the user
Figure 4. Frame Time plotted against number of avatars
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The graphs in Figures 3 and 4 show that:
- The local Metal server performs the best by any measure.
- The AWS m1.xlarge instance, which approximates to Metal, only performs as
well as Xen Dom0.
- KVM has slightly lower performance for this application than Xen DomU
- VirtualBox is not an attractive option, barely coping with 10 avatars before
degrading beneath QoE thresholds. (It may not have been designed for scalable
performance).
Conclusion
We have pointed to the great potential of open virtual worlds for immersive education but
also highlighted some significant challenges to realizing that potential. The particular
topic addressed in this paper is scalability. It is currently considered a great achievement
to maintain good Quality of Experience for even a hundred avatars in the same region at
the same time. Affordable commodity local servers can typically support up around sixty
avatars comfortably. We asked the question “Can the Cloud be used for relatively short,
fixed periods of much higher avatar density?” We have described the development of a
framework for automating scalability testing of virtual worlds. Initial results have shown
that our framework is producing consistent and useful measurements and that the AWS
machine instance most closely corresponding to the local hardware does not perform as
well. Work is in progress using larger AWS machine instances to see if the scalability
barrier can at least be raised using the Cloud. We have not systematically analyzed the
financial cost of using AWS yet, but believe that if a machine instance can significantly
outperform the local hardware, then running it for e.g. two or three hours for special
events would be cost effective. The authors welcome communications about any aspects
of this paper.
References:
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
The_Open_Simulator_Project. (2010, June). OpenSim: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page.
T. Alatalo. (2011) An Entity-Component Model for Extensible Virtual Worlds. IEEE Internet
Computing. 30-37. Available: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MIC.2011.82
P. V. P. Inc., "Phoenix: http://www.phoenixviewer.com/," ed, 2012.
C. Allison, A. Campbell, C. J. Davies, L. Dow, S. Kennedy, J. P. McCaffery, A. H. D. Miller, I. A.
Oliver, and G. I. U. S. Perera, "Growing the use of Virtual Worlds in education: an OpenSim
perspective," presented at the 2nd European Immersive Education Summit: EiED 2012, Paris, 2012.
Available: http://JiED.org
J. P. McCaffery, A. H. D. Miller, and C. Allison, "Extending the Use of Virtual Worlds as an
Educational Platform - Network Island: An Advanced Learning Environment for Teaching Internet
Routing Algorithms," presented at the 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported
Education (CSEDU 2011). Netherlands, 2011.
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[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
F. Bellotti, R. Berta, A. Gloria, and L. Primavera, "Designing Online Virtual Worlds for Cultural
Heritage," in Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009, W. Höpken, U.
Gretzel, and R. Law, Eds., ed: Springer Vienna, 2009, pp. 199-209.
S. Kennedy, L. Dow, I. A. Oliver, R. J. Sweetman, A. H. D. Miller, A. Campbell, C. J. Davies, J. P.
McCaffery, C. Allison, D. Green, J. M. Luxford, and R. Fawcett, "Living history with Open Virtual
Worlds: Reconstructing St Andrews Cathedral as a stage for historic narrative," presented at the 2nd
European Immersive Education Summit: EiED 2012, Paris, 2012. Available: http://JiED.org
K. Getchell, A. Miller, R. Nicoll, R. Sweetman, and C. Allison, "Games Methodologies and
Immersive Environments for Virtual Fieldwork," IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol.
3, pp. 281-293, 2010.
T. Sturgeon, C. Allison, and A. Miller, "802.11 Wireless Experiments in a Virtual World," ACM
SIGCSE Bull., vol. 41, pp. 85-89, 2009 2009.
L. D. Thomas and P. Mead, " Implementation of Second Life in electromagnetic theory course;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWX4Kz-6Qc," presented at the 38th Frontiers in Education
Conference, 2008. , Saratoga Springs, NY, 2008.
M. Esteves, B. Fonseca, L. Morgado, and P. Martins, "Contextualization of programming learning:
A virtual environment study," presented at the The 38th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference,
2008. FIE 2008. , Saratoga Springs, NY,, 2008.
R. S. Clavering and A. R. Nicols, "Lessons learned implementing an educational system in Second
Life," presented at the Proceedings of the 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and
Computers: HCI...but not as we know it, University of Lancaster, United Kingdom, 2007.
NASA. (2010, Learning Technologies Project FY10 Performance Report Project.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/505587main_2010_ESE_LT.pdf.
L. Dow, A. Miller, and E. Burt, "Managing Humanitarian Emergencies: Teaching and Learning with
a Virtual Humanitarian Disaster Tool," in 4th International Conference on Computers in Education,
CSEDU 2012, Porftugal, 2012.
P. Sancho, J. Tirrente, and B. Fernandez-Manjon, "Fighting Drop-Out Rates in Engineering
Education: Empirical Research regarding the Impact of MUVEs on Students' Motivation," presented
at the 1st European Imeersive Education Summit, Madrid, 2011. Available: http://JiED.org
S. Warburton, "Second Life in Higher Education: assessing the potential for and the barriers to
deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching," British Journal of Educational Technology, vol.
40, pp. 414-426, 2009.
M. Varvello, F. Picconi, C. Diot, and E. Biersack, "Is there life in Second Life?," in ACM CoNEXT
Conference, CoNEXT ’08, New York, 2008, pp. 1:1–1:12.
A. Sanatinia, I. A. Oliver, A. Miller, and C. Allison, "Virtual Machines for Virtual Worlds,"
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iED 2013
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ISSN 2325-4041
PAPER
Virtual World Access and Control: A Role-Based Approach to Securing
Content In-World
Authors: C. Lesko1, Y. Hollingsworth2, S. Kibbe 3
Affiliations:
1
Dr. Charles Lesko, Ph.D., East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, 27858,
(252) 737-1907, leskoc@ecu.edu.
2
Yolanda Hollingsworth, MLS, MSW, Middlesex Community College, Lowell,
Massachusetts, 01852, (978) 656-3001, hollingsworthy@middlesex.mass.edu.
3
Dr. Sharon Kibbe, Ph.D., East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, 27858,
(252) 328-9126, collinss@ecu.edu.
Abstract:
The growing experimentation and use of virtual world technologies such as
OpenSimulator (commonly referred to as OpenSim), demands new and innovative
approaches to controlling access to the virtual content created and retained within the
virtual space. This effort reviews the concepts surrounding access and control in-world
and provides a systematic approach to addressing this challenge. These reviews are
drawn from experience gleaned utilizing the OpenSim virtual world solution and are
compilations of various academic scenarios and constraints.
One Sentence Summary: This paper presents a layered approach to establishing rolebased access controls for a deployment of the OpenSim virtual world environment.
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Introduction
Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in the experimentation and utilization of
various virtual world (VW) technologies that can be credited, in part, to several opensource VW platforms like the OpenSimulator (OpenSim) project [1, 2]. OpenSim is an
open-source multi-platform, multi-user 3D application server used to create VW
environments. Like many of today’s VW solutions OpenSim utilizes a role-based access
control (RBAC) approach to managing the access of its end-users to virtual content.
Unlike the more traditional approaches such as discretionary access control (DAC) and
mandatory access control (MAC), the RBAC approach focuses on specifying and
enforcing enterprise-specific security policies that closely align with an established
organizational structure. Traditional approaches, such as DAC or MAC, managing
access and control within the solution has required solution owners to map organizational
security policy to a set of low-level controls commonly referred to as access control lists
[3].
The OpenSim solution incorporates an RBAC approach to managing security policy.
Each end-user is allocated one or more established roles, through an avatar, closely
aligned to the user's job responsibilities within the overall VW solution. Avatars are
given permissions or privileges to do multiple tasks. Each role is assigned one or more
privileges that enable the end-user to interact within the solution to conduct such actions
as: creating, editing and deleting content, accessing information; and controlling the
environmental settings such as light, terrain, time of day, etc. It is an end-user's
assignment or membership to various roles that determines the actions that each end-user
user is allowed to perform. Thus, the management of access and controls within an
RBAC type environment involves identifying the activities that must be conducted based
on an end-users position within the organization and then assigning the end-user to their
appropriate role(s) [4].
The roles and privileges are assigned to avatars that in turn can be assigned to a group.
For instance, a co-owner group can be established with rights and privileges. If an avatar
is given the association of being in that group, they ultimately have all the rights
themselves, much like establish “child” and “parent” permissions on a web file structure.
The Opensim solution provides academic institutions with the flexibility to tailor both the
hardware and software solution to incorporate within their own existing infrastructures.
This affords the opportunity to create scalable VW environments that are capable of
integrating with many other third party software solutions. To understand the
architectural considerations needed to deploy an OpenSim VW environment for
academia, a baseline of key terms is critical.
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Architecture of an OpenSim Grid
The VW environments that are established using OpenSim are simulated interactive
immersive 3-D digital spaces that provide multiple end users with a shared, persistent
collaborative virtual working space in real time; allowing them to build, edit and
customize content. A common unit of virtual space is a simulator (sim); a sim is one
instance of OpenSim running on a machine. The term sim is often used interchangeably
with the term region; a region is a square of virtual space or land that by default typically
equates to 256×256 meters of VW surface area. Upon establishing an OpenSim VW enduser utilizes a client viewer (the software solution needed to log into an OpenSim
environment) to log into the VW. Once logged into the VW (known as in-world), the
end-user is typically represented with a basic avatar - the users virtual representation or
proxy; it is the experience the end-user is given via the client viewer.
An OpenSim grid is one instance of OpenSim run in grid mode. The concept of a grid
involves the creation of a central ‘grid’ server that manages accounts and assets allowing
other users to run their own OpenSim regions from individual computing platforms. The
current OpenSim solution also provides for the creation of large groupings of regions
referred to as megaregions. Megaregions are an expansion on the standard region.
Megaregions are created systematically by logically conjoining two or more standard
regions; so their virtual surface size is typically a magnitude of 256×256 meters [5]. For
example, Figure 1 presents an overview of (4) regions that form a single megaregion with
a virtual surface area of 512×512 meters.
Regions can also be logically subdivided within the VW environment; these subdivisions
are referred to as parcels. A parcel is a fraction of a region that has unique individual
settings within a given region such as: media, access, voice, and security. The objects or
content found within any given region are collectively referred to as assets or inventory.
Assets are virtual content that only exist within the VW environment and can include
animations, sounds, gestures, textures, prims, and more. All this virtual content can be
retained by each end-user within their avatar’s inventory. This content can also be
exported to other grids in an OpenSim environment.
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Figure 1. Overview of (4) regions forming a single Megaregion
Whether using regions or megaregions, a single grid instance has the ability to manage
multiple regions/megaregions that are logically placed on a two-dimensional map. Once
grid services are established for a given grid, regions are mapped to the grid by providing
a unique (X,Y) coordinate and a 128-bit Universally Unique Identifier (UUID). With
valid X and Y integer values of 0-65535, the theoretical numbers of regions can easily
meet the scalability requirements of any given academic VW scenario. With the advent
of the Hypergrid concept, grid users are able to move from one OpenSim grid to another;
thus adding a whole new set of access issues to the equation [6].
Implementing Grid Access Controls
Regardless of whether or not the OpenSim grid is public or private, access and control
issues are central to establishing viable academic VW platforms. Applying appropriate
restrictions on grids for either assets or virtual spaces is extremely relevant - particularly
when protected age groups are involved. Having different end-user groupings with
different views of the VW co-existing in the same virtual space with varying levels of
access can serve to create to a more secure and clearly defined virtual working
environment [7].
When developing architectural level security schemes for designing, building, and
deploying open-source solutions such as OpenSim it is important to breakdown the
logical layers of the solution’s architecture. There are currently two distinct layers of
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access control with any singular OpenSim grid solution; the Regional Layer and the Grid
Layer (see Figure 2). Once a single private grid is connected to one or more other public
grids, an additional Hypergrid Layer is added to the access control solution. Even though
public grid ownership opens up the access control issues to a whole new level, private
grid owners must still implement controls to ensure privacy and accountability are
maintained over access to both virtual spaces and grid assets.
Grid Layer
Initial access and authentication occur at the grid layer. OpenSim utilizes a flexible server
shell referred to as Redesigned OpenSimulator Basic Universal Server Technology
(ROBUST). The ROBUST server loads various service connectors that provide
overarching access and control over the regions linked to the grid and control hyperactivity into and out of the grid. Common services that are managed at the grid level
include: login and authentication; asset and inventory management; avatar, friends and
presence services; grid and hypergrid management; and voice services.
Figure 2: Access Control Layers
The Grid layer is responsible for user access creation (UAC) using the familiar username
and password authentication approach. Typical grid setups allow for a general user
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registration process whereby creation of grid accounts is conducted online via a webbased interface; however, this approach may require further consideration. Unless
separate web-based services are provided for end-users to create their own account, each
grid account is issued by the institution to assist in validating the user’s identity.
OpenSimulator allows for the creating of grid accounts without any restriction; thus
providing academic institutions with the opportunity to use existing unique user
identities. Within any given avatar session a unique dynamically-generated UUID based
URL is assigned by the system for each given session of user interaction. These URLs
act as session tokens for their specific interaction.
At the core of any OpenSim instance is the UserLevel integer used to attribute the ‘God’
powers for each individual user which provides access to the VW environment. The
‘God’ role in OpenSim represents the administrator for the grid. When an avatar account
is created at the grid level the default value for the new account is set to ‘1’ for
‘GOD_LIKE’; this allows the account to log into the grid and conduct basic interactions.
By changing the values as outlined in Figure 3, grid administrators have the ability to
assign full grid permissions to ‘200’ for ‘GOD_FULL’ or if needed prohibit the account
from logging into the grid by setting the value to ‘-1’ for ‘GOD_NOT’.
The concept of creating groups of avatar users is not currently a core component with the
OpenSim distribution; two separate third-party groups modules (Flotsam or Simian) are
currently available allowing grid administrators the ability to create multiple groups of
avatar accounts [8]. Accounts that receive access to GOD permissions are initially
established at the Grid Layer. This level of access is very extensive allowing the account
end-user to make numerous administrative-level adjustments on the grid including:
controlling terraforming (ability to change the grid landscape); managing estates and
parcels; controlling environment (such as setting time, wind , sky and physics); managing
digital content, scripts and textures; and removing unwanted avatars (end-users) when
necessary [9].
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Figure 3: God Mode Values
Region Layer
The Region Layer is where the specific access controls to each region are set. At the time
when each region is opened up for the first time on the grid a region owner must have
been identified and is assigned the role of ‘Region Owner’. The Region Owner role has
the access permissions that enable it to manage the specific region it is assigned to.
Within the scope of the region there are numerous functions that the region owner has
control over that include: land management, user management, media management,
content creation, teleporting, flying, and media streaming [4]. Land management also
involves being able to subdivide the VW by the Region Owner into land areas referred to
as parcels. These parcels can be assigned to different end-users known as parcel owners;
once assigned, parcel owners gain some administration capability within the control span
of their respective parcels.
As a region owner, it is important to establish key groups, roles, and permissions to
govern the region. Groups assist in controlling who can build and perform functions with
the grid. Groups contain members and the members have roles on the virtual land. Many
groups can be set, but each should have their own function. For an institution, it could be
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important to sets roles such as faculty, student, etc. These groups and roles assist in the
security maintenance of the VW [10].
Current OpenSim distribution does not provide group services requiring third-party
solutions to meet this requirement. Two of the third party options Flotsam and Simian
provide for the establishment of multiple groupings with a given grid; another option
provided through the diva distribution however is currently limited to establishment of up
to two groupings [8]. Regardless of group module that is utilized, this level of
permissions granularity is critical to providing for a secure, yet accessible, academic grid.
Hypergrid Layer
The Hypergrid Layer exists for all grids and individual regions that are linked to one
another [11]. The Hypergrid Layer of access control encompasses those aspects of
interconnectivity that allow avatars and their associated characteristics and content to
travel between virtual world grids. The concept of the hypergrid allows different
institutions to run and operate their own virtual world grids while allowing end-users (via
their respective avatar accounts) to visit and participate in grids. This hypergrid
capability thus provides global collaborative support without the need for global
coordination or centralized control [12].
In the Hypergrid region/grid administrators can place hyperlinks on their in-world maps
to other institutions’ grids/regions. Once those hyperlinks are established, end-users are
able to interact within those grids/regions in exactly the same way that they would
interact within their own grid/region. Essentially, end-users (via their avatars) choose to
teleport to other hyperlinked grids/regions. Once the avatar reaches the grid/region, the
avatar is able to interact within that region without having to logout from their home grid
[13].
Grid administrators define the access policies for each of the regions/grids they create.
Currently in OpenSim, access to grid assets by outside avatars is controlled by the ‘HG
Asset Service’ on the grid server. Grid administrators are able to specify policies for
importing and exporting their grid’s assets to the grid. Once defined, these statically
assigned access policies are fixed with regards to what any in world end-user account
may attempt [11].
At the Hypergrid Layer there are two independent authorities: the home region/grid and
the destination region/grid. Each of these can be configured independent of the other.
Control of the avatars that enter a region/grid is currently handled in OpenSim by the
Gatekeeper Service; this is where grid administrators specify whether the grid accepts
visiting avatars. Home grid administrators can also statically control where the users can
and cannot go via the User Agents service. When an avatar attempts to teleport to a grid
which the home administrator doesn’t approve then the teleport request is denied; policy
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specifications are based on the end-users level giving grid administrators the latitude to
apply different restrictions based on the needs of their end-users [11, 13].
Conclusions
The need for maintaining secure virtual spaces with host server control is evident for
many institutions [14]. Even with the growing interest in the field, coupled with the
importance of securing these virtual spaces, there is not much to glean currently from the
literature due to limited scholarship in this area [15]. The literature shows research
conducted in both military and business industries that regulated virtual spaces, similar to
educational facilitated spaces and grids share the necessity of secured seamless multioperational levels. Evidence of market-driven business enterprises further reveals
research on focus group definition [16].
Increasing availability of new learning VW solutions is the proper future direction for
education institutions. Institutes should focus on content security by host and owner
institutions. Development in role definition is warranted particularly in creating policy
taxonomies for academia. Newly designed models for group management establishing
task and role functions should be taken into high consideration for any academic-centric
virtual world solutions moving forward.
References:
1. Allison, Colin and Miller, Alan. Open virtual worlds for open learning. St. Andrews,
UK : Higher Education Academy, 2012.
2. Designing 3D Virtual World Platforms for E-Learning Services. New Frontiers of
Organizational Training. Za, Stefano and Braccini, Maria. 2012, Business Information
Processing, Volume 103, pp. 284-296.
3. Winkler, Shenlei E. Opening the Content Pipeline for OpenSim-Based Virtual Worlds.
[book auth.] IRM Association. Digital Rights Management: Concepts, Methodologies,
Tools, and Applications. Hershey, PA : Information Science Reference, 2013, pp. 10301042. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2136-7.ch051.
4. Secure Learning in 3 Dimensional Multi User Virtual Environments – Challenges to
Overcome. Perera, Indika, Allison, Colin and Miller, Alan. Liverpool, UK : 11th PGNet
Symposium, 2010.
5. Scalable and consistent virtual worlds: An extension to the architecture of
OpenSimulator. Farooq, U. Bara Gali, Pakistan : IEEEXplore, 2011. 2011 International
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Conference on Computer Networks and Information Technology (ICCNIT). pp. 29-34.
DOI: 10.1109/ICCNIT.2011.6020902.
6. Hypergrid: Architecture and Protocol for Virtual World Interoperability. Lopes, C.
2011, Internet Computing, IEEE, Volume 15, Issue 5, pp. 22-29. DOI:
10.1109/MIC.2011.77.
7. NextVC2 — A next generation virtual world command and control. Carvalho, Marco
M and Ford, Richard. Orlando, FL : Internet Computing, IEEE, 2012. Military
Communications Conference, 2012 - MILCOM 2012. pp. 1-6. DOI:
10.1109/MILCOM.2012.6415834.
8. Korolov, Maria. Hypergrid inventor adds group support to OpenSim. Hyper Business.
February 22, 2013.
9. Hodge, Elizabeth, Collins, Sharon and Giordano, Tracy. The Virtual Worlds
Handbook: How to Use Second Life and Other 3D Virtual Environments. Sudbury, MA :
Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, 2009.
10. Research and Application of Access Control Technique In Distributed 3D Virtual
Environment. Bo Sun, Ji-yi Xu, Xiao-ming, Hui-qin Zhao and Liu, Jing. Melbourne,
Australia : ICCSE, 2012. The 7th International Conference on Computer Science &
Education (ICCSE 2012). pp. 1638-1643. DOI: 10.1109/ICCSE.2012.6295378.
11. Lopes, Crista. How HG 2.0 is coming along. Metaverseink.com. [Online] September
23, 2012. http://metaverseink.com/blog/?p=459%7CHow.
12. The Universal Campus: An open virtual 3-D world infrastructure for research and
education. Baldi, Pierre and Lopes, Crista. April 2012, eLearn Magazine, Issue 4, Article
6. DOI: 10.1145/2181207.2206888.
13. OpenSimulator.org - HyperGrid. Hypergrid. OpenSimulator.org. [Online] March 4,
2012. [Cited: August 6, 2012.] http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Hypergrid.
14. Virtual worlds and libraries: Gridhopping to new worlds. Hill, Valerie and Meister,
Marcia. 2013, College & Research Libraries News, Volume 74, Issue 1, pp. 43-47.
15. Scacchi, Walt, Brown, Craig and Nies, Kari'. Investigating the Use of Computer
Games and Virtual Worlds for Decentralized Command and Control. Monterey, CA :
Naval Postgraduate School, 2011.
16. Augmented Focus Groups: On Leveraging the Peculiarities of Online Virtual Worlds
when Conducting In-World Focus Groups. Houliez, Chris and Gamble, Edward. 2012,
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, Volume 7, Issue 2,
pp. 31-51. DOI: 10.4067/S0718-18762012000200005.
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PAPER
Formative Assessment in Immersive Environments: A Semantic
Approach to Automated Evaluation of User Behavior in Open
Wonderland
Authors: Joachim Maderer*1, Christian Gütl1,2, Mohammad AL-Smadi3
Affiliations:
1
Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
2
Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.
3
Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia.
*Correspondence to: joachim.maderer@student.tugraz.at
Abstract:
This paper proposes a pedagogic-prominent approach to design automated assessment
and feedback apart from the 3D virtual worlds and use them to support guided learning.
Through an externalization of the assessment process, the approach supports interaction
between educators and virtual environment designers, allowing pedagogic content to be
identified at the development stage and then manipulated dynamically in response to
learner actions and interactions within an overarching set of pedagogic goals defined by
the educator or trainer. The method supports integration with automated assessment
technologies, allowing such tools to recognize and respond immediately to learner actions
by modifying the virtual environment or triggering feedback. This decoupling between
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the assessment engine and the 3D virtual worlds enables supporting a variety of
environments as well as different contexts and application domains.
One Sentence Summary: The semantic-enabled automated assessment and feedback
have shown promising applicability to different immersive 3D virtual environments.
1. Introduction
Immersive virtual 3D environments have become popular in various learning settings and
there is common agreement on their educational impact. Recent research has shown the
potential for different use in fields such as science education [1], skill training [2], or
language learning and training [3]. Particularly in science education there is a great
benefit for situations too dangerous, expensive or impossible to create in real world
settings to be provided virtually. Beside these self-evident arguments, there is another
aspect that needs to be considered. Science education employs experiments to improve
the understanding of abstract concepts. But experiments are normally conducted in
laboratories and therefore often out of the real world context. Thus virtual worlds can
improve learning by enhancing the experiment with a more realistic setting and helping
students transferring the knowledge of a model to real world experiences and
contextualization [4].
As assessment and feedback needs to be integrated parts of a holistic learning
experience, these aspects require special attention in virtual world environments. While
summative aspects can easily be administered and evaluated afterwards (e.g. with
multiple choice tests in world or even out of world, refer to [5]), formative evaluation is
far more complex to implement. Especially in practical training like laboratory exercises,
supervisors and tutors are usually available to guide the learner and help avoiding
deadlocks through supportive feedback. Given that one of the main advantages of elearning is the support for self-paced learning [6], it must be assumed that there is not
always a teacher available in-world to observe students' knowledge and skill levels, and
give immediate supportive feedback and guidance. Nevertheless, especially immediate
feedback is considered important to foster motivation and support the development of
self-regulation learning settings [7].
Few approaches can be found in literature for providing assessment in immersive
3D environments. Among these approaches is the Sloodle project (Simulation Linked
Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) which provides Quiz chair tool
integrated with Moodle to support teachers in delivering quizzes within Second Life [8].
QuizHUD (Heads Up Display) [9] is another example, in which avatars in Second Life
are enabled to touch items and complex objects in order to provide response while
answering regular multiple-choice questions. However, both Sloodle Quiz chair and
QuizHUD are limited to simple types of questions such as multiple choice questions and
lack the support of other 3D environments – such as Open Wonderland and OpenSim.
Nevertheless, they cannot be applied to provide alternative forms of assessment such as
behavioral assessment and non-invasive assessment. Therefore, developers have to
embed those forms of assessment using the environment scripting language or code
behind. However, this requires teachers to have high level of programming skills to
implement assessment as well as the approach is neither scalable nor reusable. Focusing
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on behavioral assessment and interpersonal skills assessment, there are proposals to use
assessment approaches from serious games in which player interactions are tracked and
used to evaluate their behavior and skills based on artificial intelligence methods – such
as decision trees, finite state machines, and Bayesian networks [10]. However, these
approaches also lack to some extent flexible teacher control over the assessment method
and are not applicable for different contexts and learning scenarios.
Literature reviews of feedback in 3D virtual worlds stressed the importance of
formative models for feedback provision [11, 12]. Roger [13] classifies feedback forms
into evaluative (players get a score), interpretive (players get a score and the wrong
action), supportive (players get a score and guidance information), probing (players get a
score and analysis of why the player did the wrong action), and understanding (players
get a score and analysis of why the player did the wrong action, as well as guidance for
supportive steps or learning material). Dunwell et al. [14] discuss the feedback aspects in
digital educational games based on Rogers’ classification and propose a four-dimensional
approach for feedback provision in serious games. According to this approach, the
following aspects should be considered when it comes to the design of feedback forms in
3D virtual worlds: (a) type: feedback type differs based on Roger’s classification –
discussed above – with respect to students, teachers, or technology. Thus, required
aspects to classify feedback – such as measure variables, their relationships model,
learner model, knowledge model, and domain model – should be considered; (b) content:
content can be classified with respect to the learning outcomes into essential or desirable;
(c) format: the media used to represent feedback (e.g. text, image, voice, etc.); (d)
frequency: the rate of feedback provision to students differs with respect to instructors,
technology, pedagogy, and learner preferences control. Hence, feedback can be
immediate, delayed, or dynamic based on the domain and learner action type.
This situation stated so far has motivated our research on automated online
assessment that creates dynamic feedback and focusing on supportive aspects based on
the behavior of the learner within an immersive environment. This includes the support
for different virtual world platforms and game-based environments, and also various
application scenarios and flexibility in terms of level of assessment and type of feedback.
Previous research of this group has already focused on flexible assessment in game-based
environments; where a context dependent, rule-based assessment engine, which is
decoupled from the game design, was implemented [15]. In this research, we report about
a generalization on the conceptual level and first experiences in 3D virtual worlds. Open
Wonderland [16], a popular open source environment for hosting virtual worlds, was
selected regarding its current use in immersive education research, and due to its rich
extensibility. The main contribution of this work is the design and development of an
assessment and feedback module for Open Wonderland – based on a semantic approach –
and its application on a sample physics experiment. Different types of feedback – based
on [13, 14] – have been considered in our approach which is discussed in more details in
this paper.
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 introduces a
conceptual architecture with focus on semantics. Section 3 reports on the analysis and
findings of issues and problems regarding the implementation of a flexible semantic
assessment module in Open Wonderland and details the architecture of our approach.
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Section 4 reports on the applied demonstration of the assessment module on a physics
experiment and Section 5 finally discusses the results and gives an outlook for future
work.
2. Design and Conceptual Architecture
Based on our previous experiences and an extensive literature survey as briefly outlined
in section 1, we are interested in a flexible versatile assessment system for immersive
environments. While the primary focus lies on formative aspects in order to provide
dynamic supportive feedback, summative aspects should be covered as well. The
assessment process is supposed to work fully automated, based on the evaluation of user
behavior related to a given situational context within the immersive environment.
Flexibility also addresses the support of a variety of immersive environments.
Consequently, the following requirements for a flexible assessment system have been
identified: The assessment system should be (a) separated from the immersive
environment to support different platforms, including game-based environments and
virtual worlds. It should also be (b) flexible in terms of application domains and selected
scenarios. (c) Connections to external systems, particularly learning management systems
(LMS), should support the exchange of data – e.g. knowledge and skill level – from and
to the learners’ profiles. (d) The actual assessment mechanism (assessment logic) should
be independent and exchangeable, which allows the definition and execution of
assessment aspects in respect to knowledge and skill levels of the learner. (e) A flexible
feedback mechanism should also support different forms of assessment and feedback,
including simple text messages or multiple-choice dialogs. This includes also the choice
of the guiding system – e.g. simple screen messages or communication through nonplayer characters (NPC) – based on the available platform resources and learner
preferences. In addition, there are also non-functional requirements to be considered such
as accurate response times and usability aspects.
While the decoupling of assessment system and immersive environment has
already been shown in the context of game-based environments [15], we propose now an
enhanced and generalized flexible architecture (see Figure 1), in order to fulfill the
requirements stated above. The assessment system is supposed to act as middleware
between an immersive environment, which is delivered to the user as a learning resource,
and external systems such as LMSs or other information systems.
The communication between immersive environment and assessment system is
based on a pre-shared knowledge base of common and domain specific semantics
(semantic knowledge repository). These semantics are used to describe abstract spatial
location, abilities and observable state of entities (items and avatars), as well as possible
interactions between objects and avatars controlled by the players. Therefore, both design
processes – assessment rules and in-world scenario – can be completed independently by
different groups; i.e. the instructional designers and game designers. In terms of overall
flexibility and support of a variety of immersive environments, an assessment module
(AM) for event tracking and feedback delivery – specifically implemented for a certain
platform – is required to send events, which describe changes and actions, to the
assessment system and process possible feedback content. Events are supposed to be
player centered. That means only those changes and actions are considered, which occur
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within the perception range of the avatar. In multi-user environments, the assessment
system must therefore manage an isolated perception context per player. The approach of
using semantics is also compatible with the general request for rich semantics in future
3D environments, in order to simplify the design process and increase efficiency [17].
This can further improve the reuse of implemented items for different learning scenarios
within a certain platform itself. The learning management system (LMS) provides
information (configurable set of values) describing knowledge and skill levels of the
learner, or a set of tasks that have already been mastered or not, in order to adjust the
assessment process. In the reverse direction, the achievements and setbacks in certain
exercises are used as input to update these values, based on the current knowledge and
skill levels of the learner.
Figure 1. Overview of the conceptual architecture of the automated, flexible assessment
for immersive environments.
The current work aims at two main objectives: First, an exemplary
implementation for Open Wonderland should proof, that the assessment approach is also
applicable to 3D virtual worlds. Second, an initial step towards a rich semantic
representation of virtual worlds should be made, in order to study if such semantics can
be facilitated to support dynamic supportive feedback across different application
domains and platforms with the potential of decreasing amount of time required for
assessment design. Therefore the next section will describe the development of a flexible
semantic-enabled assessment module for Open Wonderland.
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4. Flexible Semantic-enabled Assessment Module for Open Wonderland
4.1 Situation Analysis and Identified Issues
As a client-server based system, entirely written in Java, Open Wonderland (OWL) is a
toolkit for hosting 3D virtual worlds. Its design features a highly modular system, which
can be well extended and customized for specific purposes. Typical 3D items, which
users can interact with, are called cells in OWL. Communication between client and
server is facilitated through serializable Java objects, referred to as messages. The client
software, which is considered an interactive browser, is delivered through Java Web Start
and loads all relevant packages needed for joining a server session when logging on to a
server. The balance between server and client is designed in such a way that the server is
primarily responsible for managing the synchronous state between cells and their
representation on multiple clients, while the client does most of the physics calculations
and graphics rendering. [18]
Prior to the actual development, an analysis of the current state of Open
Wonderland regarding the aspects of semantic event tracking for assessment purpose (as
discussed in Section 2) was conducted. This relates to the interception of user actions,
available information on 3D objects (cells) and the detection of location changes of the
avatar. The review is based on the architecture paper, available documentation and source
code studies of the OWL project [16, 18-20].
On the client-side, user actions are implemented through different mechanisms,
including context menus, control panels (also available in-world) and direct processing of
mouse and keyboard events within the 3D space. While basic mouse and keyboard events
are less interesting due to the raw information they provide, actions revealed by context
menus and control panels were examined more closely. It has been found impossible to
derive information that can be used to automatically create semantic events, because
there is no guarantee that actions will expose any information beyond graphical or textual
representation required for the user interface. Especially textual representations depend
on the current language setting of the client; therefore it does not render a valid source for
independent information. As a considerable amount of actions have to be shared with
other clients, cell messages are finally sent to the server to request those changes.
Although these messages can be intercepted, there is still the problem that messages are
simple serializable and derived Java objects, which do not feature a common interface to
expose semantically usable information.
Available information of cells is rather limited. Besides a name there are no
attributes available that describe the purpose of the 3D object. As cells are implemented
as derived classes and stored in different modules, all information and behavior is
encapsulated. Consequently, there is no common way to determine which kind of user
interaction with an object is supported. This concerns also the status of an object, whereas
in that case status refers to something that could be understood and observed by a human
being, e.g. the color of a traffic light or something similar.
Regarding the current location of an avatar, it is not complicated to obtain the
corresponding 3D coordinates. However, the usage of exact coordinates is not desirable,
as the assessment system should be able to work with different scenarios, thus not relying
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on coordinates, but rather on abstract descriptions of location on a semantic level.
Furthermore, there is no pre-defined mechanism for tagging spatial areas. OWL features
enable the concept of proximity listeners, which can define 3D spatial areas (called
bounding volumes) that trigger events whenever an avatar enters or leaves such an area.
Thus, our findings reveal that it is not possible to develop a fully automated
tracking system, which can generate semantic useful events without adapting cells
contained in existing modules. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose a
conceptual approach in the following section.
3.2 Conceptual Architecture
Based on the issues presented in the previous section and the general approach presented
before, we propose a conceptual architecture for an assessment module in Open
Wonderland (OWL) that supports the two following phases: (a) design time, where cells
(3D objects) and spatial sections are annotated with semantic information. In addition,
cells in existing modules must be enhanced by developers in order to trigger semantic
events related to encapsulated behavior; and (b) runtime, where user actions and
environmental changes are tracked to automatically create semantic events. All semantic
events are collected and instantly sent to an external assessment system, which evaluates
the event flow based on an internal assessment mechanism and provides feedback and
guidance if required. Provided feedback is then delivered to the set of OWL clients
according to the scenario and the instructional objectives.
Due to the architecture of OWL itself, the assessment module (see Figure 2) is
divided into aspects that belong to either the client context or the server context. The
conceptual architecture has the following components:
Client 3D object and shared 3D object refer to a typical pair of client-side cell and
server-side managed cell objects in OWL. While the cell object on the client-side is
responsible for user interaction and presentation, relevant actions that affect all
participating clients are sent to the server through cell messages. The managed cell object
on the server-side is supposed to construct semantic events and sent them to the
assessment module for further processing.
The semantic event manager is responsible for collecting semantic events created
within the virtual world and forwarding the information to all registered listeners. The
following mechanisms are involved in creating semantic events: (a) Tagging and
metadata components are used to annotate spatial sections with place marks and add
additional information to certain cells (3D objects), including proximity zones – discrete
definition of distance from an avatar to the cell. This can be used to detect behavior such
as users entering or leaving rooms; or approaching certain cells. Both actions are
accomplished by world designers during design time. In the runtime phase, semantic
events are created automatically based on the location of the avatar. (b)
Programmatically invoked events are created by embedded functionality that is added to
existing and newly created modules (usually server-side managed cells) by software
developers. This kind of events is used to describe interaction with a cell object – as well
as to report on its state – e.g. the amplitude of a pendulum swing. Here again, a state is
always considered to be information that is directly observable and understandable by a
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human player. (c) Common events include very basic OWL actions like start and stop of
avatar movements or gestures, which are again created automatically. However, there is
no particular design time feature exists for such events. Therefore, a global configuration
is supposed to provide mappings to yield proper semantic information for such built-in
events.
The external assessment interface is supposed to register with the semantic event
manager and communicate with the external assessment system. The assessment interface
uses the server-side feedback API to create feedback content items based on the results
received from the external assessment system.
The feedback API is a server-side interface to create and send feedback content to
specified clients based on the participating users. Which users are involved in certain
feedback messages is determined by the external assessment system. The structural
representation of the feedback content is based on the four-dimensional approach for
feedback in serious games [14]. However, while pedagogical aspects are decided in the
context of the assessment system, the module is responsible for presentation. The current
version is capable of displaying text messages only.
The client feedback API is a collection of utility functions to play feedback
content items on the OWL client and to activate different guiding mechanisms.
The authoring tools on the client-side are used by content designers to create
place marks for annotating spatial areas and attach metadata to existing cells. To support
debugging, an event monitor and a system reset function are included as well.
Figure 2. Conceptual architecture for a flexible semantic assessment module in OWL
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4. Sample Application of a Physics Experiment
Based on the conceptual architecture introduced in the previous section, we have
developed a first proof of concept of the assessment module for Open Wonderland. To a
certain extent, the developed assessment module supports the exemplary scenario
presented in this section. The following aspects have been chosen to be tested with the
prototype: (a) The tagging and metadata component, more exactly the feature for
defining annotated place marks, (b) programmatically invoked events implemented on a
single cell (3D object) included in a sample module on a physics experiment and (c)
delivery of textual feedback content to clients through the feedback API (server) and
client feedback API enabling simple screen messages.
Feedback content items are forward from OWL server to client. As the
assessment module does not include built-in assessment logic by design, the scenario has
been linked with SOFIA Middleware [11] through the simple object access protocol
(SOAP) in order to receive feedback based on a context-dependent, rule-based assessment
mechanism. The assessment process includes the transfer of semantic events (containing
user actions and state values) from the assessment module to the evaluation web service.
Based on these semantic events, the assessment engine provides the suitable feedback by
evaluating the event against related assessment rules – matching for actions and state
changes – which have been defined in advance.
Figure 3. During the first approach to the experiment, the learner receives a supportive
message, referring to the PDF document displayed on the presentation wall at the lefthand side.
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For demonstration purpose a laboratory setup modeling a real pendulum has been
selected. The primary element of this setup is a cell object that represents an animated
pendulum based on an underlying simulation model that has been developed as OWL
module. The simulation model is connected with the refresh rate (time interval) of the 3D
scene and solves the equation of motion through numerical integration. Due to this fact,
the pendulum behavior is close to real world settings. The pendulum cell has been
programmatically enhanced to raise semantic events (refer to (b) above), describing the
interaction for pushing the pendulum (user action), as well as giving information on the
maximum deflection angle (state) – i.e. the peak amplitude on the basis of its current
mechanical energy. Further items in the scene include a presentation wall – in order to
present instructions for the experiment contained in a PDF file – and a white board to
make notes. Finally, the setting has been annotated with a hidden place mark [refer to (a)
above] that defines a spatial section around all described items. This place mark is
labeled to associate it with semantic information.
The following two show cases have been selected to demonstrate either (a) and
(b), both in combinations with (c), as feedback is an essential element in both examples:
(1) the instructions and experiment description on the presentation wall are a permanent
feature of this setting. However, less experienced learners may even need a hint to read
these instructions first, before they begin with the experiment. This has been a motivation
for a first show case (see Figure 3). The world-builder has used a hidden spatial place
mark to annotate the local area around the experiment. When the player approaches this
area, an appropriate event is automatically triggered by the assessment module. The
instructor has defined a rule in the context of the remote assessment logic that matches
against this event. As a result, a text-based feedback message is released by the
assessment logic and sent back to the assessment module.
Finally, the feedback is displayed on the screen, guiding the learner to the
presentation wall. If the assessment system is additionally connected with the learner
profile, it could also decide whether such feedback is required. (2) After reading the
instructions the player should be aware that the formula for a simplified pendulum is only
valid for small deflection angles. The second show case (see Figure 4) assumes that
(based on any actual task) pushing the pendulum too strong would corrupt certain
measurements and calculations. Whenever the player performs a click on the pendulum a
discrete amount of kinetic energy is induced. As a side effect, a built-in event –
containing the interaction itself, as well as an update of the amplitude (max. deflection
angle) – is communicated via the semantic event manager. In this case, the instructor
defines a rule that matches not only against the interaction of pushing the pendulum, but
evaluates also a condition determining the threshold for the maximum allowed deflection
angle. If this threshold is exceeded, appropriate feedback is given to the learner.
Besides minor technical issues, which are mostly related to the current
development state of Open Wonderland, the conceptual approach and findings from the
first implementation turns out to be mostly successful. The response times are acceptable
for providing immediate feedback and suffice real time performance. That holds true
even if Open Wonderland server and assessment web service are separated through
public internet connections. The semantic approach turns out to be useful to support the
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decoupling of assessment design and world building, thus enabling the reuse of certain
environmental elements for different situations.
However, as already indicated in the previous sections, the limitations concerning
the direct integration of existing modules make it difficult to provide a complete
perspective of the situational context for the assessment system. Therefore, a
considerable amount of work has to be invested in order to prepare all commonly used
pre-existing modules (e.g. presentation wall, whiteboard, etc.) to support this approach.
New modules can adopt this approach directly by following the design guidelines for
programmatically invoked events.
Another aspect is that most items in Open Wonderland can be selected and
operated without being even close to those items. As a result, events can be generated out
of context, thus delivering a wrong perspective to the assessment system of what is
actually happening within the virtual world. Finally, common events – although not
implemented and tested in this sample application – are intended to track basic player
behavior. For instance, by tracking start and stop events of player movements the
assessment system could evaluate the avatar behavior. This could also include changes of
viewing directions which could be improved to track also cells currently observed by the
avatar. Then the assessment system would be able to give appropriate feedback only
related to cells visible on the screen on that moment.
Figure 4. When pushing the pendulum too strong, a supportive feedback message
suggests that the simplified theoretical model is not valid for large deflection angles.
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6. Discussion and Outlook
This research aims at developing a semantic-enabled approach to support automated
assessment forms in Open Wonderland. More precisely, to develop an external and
automated assessment of user behavior within the virtual world. The proposed approach
enables dynamic and supportive feedback and guidance provision considering knowledge
and skill levels of the learner. The approach is underpinned by a conceptual architecture
for a generalized flexible assessment system in immersive environments as a foundation
to support not only Open Wonderland, but different platforms for game-based
environments and virtual worlds as well. In addition the approach is flexibly designed to
support a variety of application domains and scenarios.
To this end, an assessment module for Open Wonderland has been designed, and a
prototype has been developed and used for the implementation of proof of concept for
automated assessment and feedback. Moreover, the assessment approach has been
applied on a sample physics experiment to evaluate its applicability and performance.
First findings have shown that the general approach is applicable to different immersive
3D virtual environments. The response times were acceptable for providing immediate
feedback and suffice real time performance.
However, first experiences with Open Wonderland reveal that semantic
information is not considered an important aspect at this time; and it seems natural to
assume that other platforms will share similar issues. Especially if considering again that
there exists a general request for rich semantics in complex 3D virtual environments [17].
Consequently, it would make sense to suggest making semantic information a key feature
in next generation virtual world platforms, thus not only supporting the semantic
approach on flexible assessment proposed in this paper, but also other aspects.
Moreover, the used semantic-enabled assessment system is rule-based, context
dependent, and provides feedback through a clearly defined web service that was
developed earlier by our research group [15]. This decoupling between the assessment
engine and the 3D virtual environment enables supporting a variety of environments as
well as different contexts and application domains. Nevertheless, it enables content and
scenarios reusability and maintains interoperable and flexible automated assessment
forms.
Nevertheless, the next steps must include the improvement of this approach,
especially in creating large-scale scenarios annotated with rich semantics. Moreover,
future research may include using standards and specifications that are semantic related
to represent services and communication with the semantic knowledge repository. In
future work, we will also apply the findings and tools of this work on the NDIVE project
(http://ndive-project.com) for assessment and providing feedback and guidance for skill
training.
Acknowledgements
Parts of the research is linked to the nDIVE project (http://ndive-project.com). Support
for the production of this publication has been provided by the Australian Government
Office for Learning and Teaching (Development of an authentic training environment to
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support skill acquisition in logistics & supply chain management, ID:ID12-2498). The
views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian
Government Office for Learning and Teaching.
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J. W. Kemp, D. Livingstone, P. R. Bloomfield, SLOODLE: Connecting VLE tools with
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P. R Bloomfield, D. Livingstone, Immersive Learning and Assessment with quizHUD.
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Knowledge Society World Computer Congress Brisbane Australia 2023 Sept 2010, N. Reynolds,
N. Turcsányi-Szabó, Eds. (Springer Boston, 2010), pp. 165-176.
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E. H. Mory, Feedback research revisited, Handbook of research on educational
communications and technology 2, 745–783 (2004).
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V. J. Shute, Focus on formative feedback, Review of educational research 78, 153–189
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15.
M. Al-Smadi, G. Wesiak, C. Guetl, Assessment in Serious Games: An Enhanced
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Open Wonderland (available at http://openwonderland.org/).
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T. Tutenel, R. Bidarra, R. M. Smelik, K. J. D. Kraker, The role of semantics in games and
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J. Kaplan, N. Yankelovich, Open Wonderland: An Extensible Virtual World
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PAPER
A Technological Model for Teaching in Immersive Worlds: TYMMI’s
Project
Authors: M.G. Badilla1*†, C. Lara2
Affiliations:
1
Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción.
2
Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción.
*Correspondence to: mgbadilla@ucsc.cl
† Facultad de Educación
Alonso de Ribera Avenue # 2850
Campus San Andrés
Concepción, Chile
Abstract:
TYMMI project, Technology and pedagogical models in immersive worlds, is funded by
the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FONDECYT) in Chile.
Through an exploratory, descriptive, and longitudinal study, we seek to strengthen the
professional performance of bachelor education students by simulating teaching practice
in three dimensional (3D) learning environments, through the design, validation and
implementation of a technological model in Second Life (SL) and OpenSimulator
(OpenSim). Those environments allow virtual learning opportunities where community
members can meet, share and interact in the process of assimilation of teaching practices.
Preliminary results are related to the development of a conceptual and technological
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model for teaching in immersive virtual worlds and the design of an immersive
simulation platform for students. In this virtual space there is architecture to support
pedagogical proposal that includes classrooms with educational situations that are set in
the sub-critical zone of Language and Communication in primary education.
One Sentence Summary: The conceptual technology model supports the design and
deployment of pedagogical actions in immersive virtual worlds through process and
technology components.
1. Introduction
The design of activities that consciously adhere to the principles of good teaching,
curricular context and relevance in relation to teaching strategies, learning techniques and
the profile of the students is a complex job for teachers. The difficulties arise from the
volume, complexity and high frequency of changes in the general definitions of
university courses and curriculum design. This is not only a reality in Chile. In Latin
America, Tenti Fanfani [1] states that the reforms have created a crisis of professional
identity of teachers, as they have relied on an instrumental view of teaching. Another
relevant factor is the scarce systemization of standards of documentation of educational
activities and the lack of integration of these documents with the particular structures of
learning strategies included in the activity. Other factors include time constraints for class
preparation, attention to students, breaks during the workday and lack of time caused by
the need to have more than one job [2-8].
Another dimension of the problem is the integration of Information Technology and
Communication (ICT) as a resource, which is hampered by the gap between digital
immigrant teachers and digital native students, both concepts defined by Prensky [9].
Teachers have few systematized knowledge bases that allow them to consult available
resources relevant to their design needs. The large amount of scattered information
available on the Internet further adds to the problem, hindering teachers’ decision-making
regarding the use of ICT in the teaching-learning process. Evidence indicates that most
teachers do not use technology as a teaching resource intensively in their classrooms due
to poor preparation in the use of these tools during their training as teachers [10], among
other causes. Consequently, a major challenge is to train teachers to match the current
demands, and incorporate an inclusive vision for initial training so that through ICT,
education becomes the catalyst for equitable development.
Meanwhile, 2021 Organization Goals not only raise the need to integrate ICT into the
curriculum and evaluate its impact, but also to train teachers and disseminate innovative
pedagogical practices using ICT [11]. Teachers, both in Chile, Latin America and
developed countries, complain about a lack of technical support to adequately choose
between the various and often conflicting existing pedagogical alternatives [1, 6]. For
example, they resent the lack of opportunity to update the educational use of
technologies, to the extent that it generates among them a sense of obsolescence and fear
of being replaced by others with more training [12, 13]. In Chile, teachers complain about
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the lack of support and professional development opportunities [14], an absence that is of
particular concern in the case of teachers with less than three years of service [15].
2. Virtual Worlds
One of the technological possibilities that can be incorporated into the world of education
is Second Life (SL), an immersive virtual world that is accessible from the Internet. The
potentialities of virtual worlds lie in the fact that today learning processes do not attend to
the demands that the work environment requires of education professionals, thus the
creation of three-dimensional educational settings could generate an additional advantage
to traditional methodologies, allowing users to interact in simulated work environments.
One of the features of Second Life is that it is a cross-platform software with threedimensional (3D) features, and unique, easy to remember settings, which can run on
Linux, Macintosh and Windows. Second Life was developed in 2003 by Linden Lab, a
private U.S. corporation. Its counterpart is OpenSimulator (OpenSim), open source
software that allows for easy simulation of 3D virtual environments. Its function is to
allow various developers to create virtual worlds and to put these in contact with worlds
created by other developers. This creates a domino effect because it extends the use of
virtual worlds to enhance the interest of netizens (citizens using the Internet). SL offers
the opportunity to use simulation in a safe environment to enhance experiential learning.
It enables participants (avatars), in various communities (islands), the ability to create
their own spaces, to exchange information, and to create situations in order to interact
within the environment, practice skills, try new ideas and learn from their errors [16].
Immersion in a virtual world in the sphere of education produces positive results in
various areas. For example, it benefits the possibilities of experimentation through the
user's active action, so that it, in turn, relates to formative elements and equally to other
elements of the environment. It thus becomes collaborative and motivating [17, 18].
Gonzalez and Chavez [19] indicate that there is a positive relationship between the use of
the tool in 3D and learning, specifically in the degree of retention, utilization of
transmission and diagnosis of skills.
3. Methodology
The current project is developing from 2012 to 2015. It is addressed in a
multidisciplinary approach, bringing together the areas of pedagogy, educational
computing, engineering sciences and social communication. This research is developed
under a theoretical framework, which integrates the principles and rules of both the
positivist and interpretive paradigm, assuming that in education the use of more than one
paradigm as integration and complement of each other is accepted [20].
The scope of this research is of an exploratory and descriptive nature because it attempts
to examine an understudied topic in order to become familiar with relatively unknown
phenomena and because it seeks to describe the various aspects and dimensions of it [21].
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The methodology corresponds to a multi-method research design, which is used when
two or more procedures are employed to investigate the same phenomenon, through the
different stages of the project [22-24]. It is considered a multiple model that uses
qualitative and quantitative approaches in phases of the research process: research design,
selection of approach, construction, data analysis, and interpretation of results [25].
4. Preliminary Results
Preliminary results relate to the first year of the project. It consists in the development of
a conceptual and technological model for teaching in immersive virtual worlds and the
design of an immersive simulation platform for students. In this virtual space there is
architecture to support a pedagogical proposal, which includes classrooms with
educational situations that are set in the sub-critical zone of Language and
Communication in primary education.
4.1 Conceptual and Technological Model for Teaching in Immersive Worlds
The architecture to support the pedagogical proposal of work in immersive environments
developed by Project TYMMI contemplates in one of its phases, the design of a
conceptual technological model for teaching in immersive worlds, TEDOMI. It proposes
the interaction of a set of processes with technology components, focused on enhancing
the simulation of teaching practices in three-dimensional environments like Second Life
and OpenSim.
The process component proposes groups of actions for teachers to consult, plan and/or
implement educational activities, ensuring an appropriate approach to the use of
resources, and meaningful curricular context. The technology component in turn
comprises of: 1) computer systems that support teachers in consultation, design and
planning, and 2) the spaces created in immersive worlds platforms where resources are
available for use and teaching practice with this type of technology, among those that are
considered for use is SLOODLE (see Figure 1).
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Figure 1. Technological model for teaching in immersive worlds: TEDOMI
4.1.1 Technology Components
The technology components are represented by pedagogical deployment platforms that
constitute the space where teaching activities will be held. In the context of this project,
these platforms are the immersive virtual worlds Second Life and OpenSim. The other
component is the cataloging of resources and educational planning, which consists of a
support platform for preliminary processes and post-teaching activities.
A) Pedagogical deployment platforms
In this project, the pedagogical deployment platforms are Second Life and OpenSim. In
the Second Life environment a private region was acquired, equipped with free and paid
tools with high educational potential. The same will happen in a second phase with the
OpenSim platform.
It ensures the integration of both environments with the Learning Management System
(LMS) Moodle through an integrator, known as SLOODLE. This technical measure is
useful for tasks that require the use and access the LMS from the virtual world, for the
purpose of registering products made by students with a permanent storage medium.
B) Platform for cataloging resources and educational planning
The platform for cataloging resources and educational planning consists of software,
called Acti-Plan, custom-built for this project, which will allow teachers to act in two
areas: cataloging resources and educational planning.
The cataloging of resources, which consists in providing the teacher with an interface
computer system in which an index card can be registered, relating to a tool explored in
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virtual worlds has been considered as a potential educational resource. It should be noted
that the first resources listed are those used in private virtual spaces in Second Life and
OpenSim, already acquired by the project.
The spirit of creating this module of cataloging in Acti-Plan is based on the fact that the
resources that are useful for education are in constant development, and that they may be
hosted in multiple locations within virtual worlds. Therefore, it is an impossible task for a
centralized administrator or teacher in particular, to maintain a permanent exploration of
resources and an up-to-date catalog. The added value of this interface is that it allows the
task to be approached as a collaborative teaching community.
Each listing added contains the following metadata about the resource: Resource Name,
Creator or author, Description, Type, Permissions, Cost, Location, Version and Revision
date.
Educational planning consists in providing the teacher with a user interface for assisted
recording of educational activities. The documentation of activities assistant proposes
three phases:
1. Context of good teaching practice
2. Curricular context: national plans and programs, institutional graduate profile
3. Design of curricular activities
• Phase sequence base
• Determination of steps for each phase of the proposed base sequence.
• Learning strategies related to a step or phase of the base sequence
• Resources
• Teaching skills required
The design of the Acti-plan contemplates that all elements are preloaded to facilitate the
teacher in planning exercises, reducing the task to the selection of the relevant facts. In
this way the teacher concerns himself with the sequence of the activity designed, given
that all the instrumental curricular definition can be quickly defined.
4.1.2 Process Components
Process components define frameworks for cataloging tools, consulting the knowledge
base, teacher action planning and recording the experience. These processes are not
necessarily a strict sequence and the teacher, depending on particular needs and
knowledge gaps, can use one or all processes. Below is a description of the five processes
involved:
A) Cataloging Tools SL / OS for teaching
In this instance teachers explore the pedagogical deployment platforms to find tools
which could be of interest as educational resources. In the context of this project, the
pedagogical deployment platforms considered are: Second Life and OpenSim. However,
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this is not a restriction and exploration can be expanded or changed to suit the interests of
the teacher.
This process is supported by the Platform for cataloging and planning educational
resources, specifically the functionality referred to as cataloging, where the teacher will
record the resource explored according to the index card defined for this purpose.
B) Check the knowledge base
In practice, planning educational activities in virtual worlds may prove difficult, as the
teacher may have little teaching experience to successfully deal with the design of the
activities. To strengthen this process, the technological platform, Acti-Plan, allows you to
query a knowledge base (Knowledge base or K-base) that contains the information about
activities stored by the user and by other teachers.
This process has support from the Platform for cataloging resources and pedagogical
planning, specifically in the functionality referring to planning, where the teacher can
consult the database with different search criteria, such as resource type, education level,
unit content, learning strategy, and also access documentation of lists of activities related
to the search criteria.
C) Pedagogical/Didactic Planning Process
Planning activities can be very time-consuming for a teacher if there is no appropriate
assistance or instrumentation. To strengthen this, the platform Acti-Plan allows teachers
to plan their activities in an assisted manner, reducing the time spent on the task and
increasing the quality and effectiveness of the design of the activities.
This process is supported by the Platform for cataloging and planning educational
resources, specifically in functionality related to pedagogical planning, where it is
possible to define all the curricular context, fundamental steps for the development of
activities, learning strategies and the use of technological resources.
D) Implementation of the pedagogical activity
Depending on the planned activity, the teacher runs the pedagogical action on the
selected deployment platform. For the context of this research the alternatives are Second
Life or OpenSim, with the possibility of considering integration with Moodle.
E) Recording the experience (teaching metacognition)
Since 1976, when Flavell [26] defined metacognition as the knowledge and regulation
that an individual has about his own cognoscitive processes, various conceptual
constructions have been established. However, none were very distant from the original.
Garrison point out that metacognition consisting of two components: awareness
(knowledge) and implementation strategies (control) [27]. Torar-Gálvez [28] poses
metacognition as being a strategy that spans three dimensions through which the
individual acts and carries out the tasks:
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•
Dimension of reflection, in which the individual recognizes and evaluates his own
cognitive structures, methodological possibilities, processes, abilities and
disadvantages.
•
Dimension of administration, during which the individual, already conscious of
his condition, proceeds to combine these diagnosed cognitive components, with
the intention of forming strategies to solve the task.
•
Dimension of evaluation, through which the individual assesses the
implementation of his strategies and the degree to which the cognitive goal is
being achieved.
After the implementation of the educational activity, it is important to capture the
impressions of teachers and participating students. To strengthen this process and to
systematize information, the Acti-Plan provides a module for systematically recording
these perceptions. In this way, the process cycle is closed; the K-base records data on the
complete cycle of the teaching action, enabling analysis and construction of knowledge.
The Acti-Plan also includes a function in which teachers and students can record
evaluations of the educational experience that covers the evaluation dimension.
Educational metacognition, in regard to the reflection and administration dimensions,
must be considered according to the pedagogical model, which is the basis for the
implementation of the pedagogical planning module. For students, both dimensions must
be triggered by the design of the activity.
+
+
4.2 Relationship Problem-Solution
In relation to the issues raised in the context of this research (that is, to strengthen the
professional practices of student teachers through immersive simulation environments)
the technological and conceptual model TEDOMI responds to the problems identified in
Table 1 below, supporting the design and deployment of pedagogical actions.
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Table 1. Relationship between pedagogical problem and the solution proposed by TEDOMI
Problem
Solución del modelo TEDOMI
Volume, complexity and high
frequency of changes in the
general
definitions
and
curriculum
Systematize this information and keep it up to date in the
database K-Base
Teachers have few systematized
knowledge bases which allow
them
to consult available
resources relevant to their design
needs
The model designs and implements software called ActiPlan, where one of its interfaces allows the cataloging of
resources (or tools) available in the online stores (virtual
shop) and/or in the immersive environment platforms
themselves (Second Life and OpenSim).
Acti-Plan not only allows the documentation of ICT
resources, but also associates these resources to activities
that are planned and, at the end of its execution, Acti-Plan
has an interface for recording teaching experience with
respect to the use of ICT and other relevant dimensions
Thanks to this, the K-Base provides information to teachers
so that they can explore the contexts and experiences in
which one or more resources have been used pedagogically.
Scarce systemization of standards
of documentation of educational
activities, and the lack of
integration of these documents
with the particular structures of
learning strategies included in the
activity
The model designs and implements a computer system,
called Acti-Plan, which assists the teacher in the
documentation and recording of the activity, according to a
standard model, also allowing to document the activity
according to related learning strategies.
To achieve this assistance, the K-Base systemizes the
standard of documenting activities and the standard of
documenting learning strategies
The activity log created by the teacher, with the assistance of
Acti-Plan becomes effective in K-Base
The global context of good teaching practices, such as the
curricular space in which the activity is located, can be easily
related, given that in K-Base such information is
systematized.
In this process of assisted teaching planning, it will be
possible to associate one or more cataloged resources from
Second Life or OpenSim to an activity, which are pertinent
to the development of the activity.
Source: Authors
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4.3 Architecture to Support Pedagogical Proposal
The second result of this project is related to the construction of a website, which presents
the main aspects of the project [29] (see Figure 2 below).
In addition, a TYMMI island in Second Life was acquired and an environment was
configured. This environment was configured with classrooms and resources related to
education which, together with the integration of Moodle, allowed access to this LMS
from Second Life (see Figure 3).
In this virtual space, there is architecture to support the pedagogical proposal. This
architecture included classrooms with educational situations that were set in the subcritical zone of Language and Communication. Here the teaching techniques will be
implemented as simulation, such as art exhibits, communities, creation of objects, blogs,
conferences, exploration and research.
The instructional model that provides the basis for the design of simulation activities of
learning environments for pedagogy students is based on the theory of meaningful
learning, with a strong component in role-play, collaborative work and metacognition.
An example of how Second Life is being used currently by enabling thematic areas in
which the teacher and students work in four moments of a class: first, the teacher
contextualizes the issues addressed during the session; second, students discover and
work with the different resources; third (optional), students visit other islands in Second
Life, and fourth, students reflect and socialize the results of their search.
The island has various resources such as: The Opinionator, which instantly calculate and
displays votes in percentage and as a pie chart in the center, and MindMap 3D, which
creates some spheres (node) to connect each other to represent what avatars are thinking.
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Figure 2. TYMMI’s Project web page
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Figure 3. TYMMI Project in Second Life
5. Conclusions
Teachers need to be freed from instrumental suffocation that planning often requires.
Given the complex curriculum framework in which it is situated, it is important to revive
the professional identity of teachers that gives them the opportunity to focus their
capabilities on meeting the needs of the teaching and learning process present in the
educational contexts in which they work.
Providing teachers with access to knowledge bases containing ICT resources cataloged
by both characteristics and user experience allows initiated users to review and reflect on
teaching practices already used by other teachers. This then enables them to adapt these
to their own contexts.
The formation of a community of teachers, which explores and catalogs ICT resources
and shared experiences of teaching and learning in relation to diverse curricular contexts,
consolidates a learning curve and provides a constantly evolving collaboration among
teachers. This enables the strengthening of the utilization of ICT resources in their
teaching practice. Undoubtedly, this platform has a repository of activities and good
practices to incorporate ICT in the classroom, which allows the development of a
complementary model of education and virtual learning opportunities where avatars of
community members can meet, share and interact in the assimilation process of teaching
practices.
Moreover, the use of immersive virtual worlds as a teaching resource can trigger high
motivation of students in the development of educational activities, maximizing their
learning.
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Aknowledgments
This research is being carried out thanks to the support of Comisión Nacional de
Investigación Científica –Conicyt- Ministry of Education, Chile, through the National
Fund for Scientific and Technological Development: Iniciation Fondecyt Project number
11121532.
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PAPER
Towards a Theory of Immersive Fluency
Authors: Nicola Marae Allain1*
Affiliations:
1
SUNY Empire State College
*Correspondence to: nicola.allain@esc.edu
Abstract:
The challenge of working fluently across a combination of literacies is a major hurdle in
implementing immersive education. Even when students, particularly digital natives,
embrace the complexities of the medium, faculty often struggle to develop the technical
skills required to create immersive experiences. The theory and practice of immersion
applied in the Master of Arts in Learning and Emerging Technologies (MALET) at
SUNY Empire State College provides graduate students with immersion in virtual worlds
learning as they acquire fluency across literacies. Learners co-create in collaborative
virtual environments as designers of teaching and learning experiences. They participate
in peer review in preparation for an open, juried showcase presented in virtual worlds,
and design a complete learning environment for the Advanced Design Seminar. The
fluency they acquire requires moving beyond literacies as they work in environments that
foster a host of experiences leading to visual, digital, media, cultural, and critical
fluencies.
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One Sentence Summary: Students in an immersive graduate program acquire fluency
beyond literacies as they create immersive learning experiences.
Introduction
The challenge of working fluently across a combination of literacies is a major hurdle in
implementing immersive education. The act of immersion in itself includes the
integration of a complex set of skills such as habituation to being within an avatar
embodiment, able navigation, handling headsets, communication etiquette, and orienting
oneself to the environment. In immersive learning situations, students are also asked to
interact with, and create, a variety of digital media in interdisciplinary contexts. In
collaborative settings, they must also coordinate the complex logistics of teamwork and
content creation as they master the new environments.
Even when students, particularly digital natives, embrace the complexities of the
medium, faculty often struggle to develop the technical skills required to create
immersive experiences. According to the NMC Horizon Report: 2013 Higher Education
Edition, “Faculty training still does not acknowledge the fact that digital media literacy
continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession. Despite
the widespread agreement on the importance of digital media literacy, training in the
supporting skills and techniques is rare in teacher education and non-existent in the
preparation of faculty.” [1-3]
I propose that an immersive approach to education helps overcome these challenges. Just
as immersive language learning provides students and faculty with opportunities to
become fluent within a condensed time period, learning in immersive environments
contributes to a fluid acquisition across literacies. Regardless of entry literacy level,
students and teachers in immersive environments learn to integrate skills and literacies
while applying them to emergent experiences.
Scope of work
This is an exploration of the concept of information fluency applied to immersion. I
propose that immersive fluency should be the overarching goal for students and faculty
engaged in immersive education. As in mastery of language, reading, and other skills
essential to the learning enterprise, basic literacy is barely enough to assure an adequate
functioning level in the medium. Immersive education requires participants to push
beyond basic literacies.
Mackey and Jacobson provide an excellent discussion of current developments in the
following literacies: information literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, visual literacy,
cyberliteracy. [4] They also include an overview of the theory of information fluency,
which was the focus of a 1999 report sponsored by the Committee on Information
Technology Literacy, National Research Council. According to the report, “this
requirement of a deeper understanding than is implied by the rudimentary term
“computer literacy” motivated the committee to adopt “fluency” as a term connoting a
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higher level of competency. People fluent with information technology are able to
express themselves creatively, to reformulate knowledge, and to synthesize new
information. Fluency with information technology entails a process of lifelong learning in
which individuals continually apply what they know to adapt to change and acquire more
knowledge to be more effective at applying information technology to their work and
personal lives. Fluency with information technology requires three kinds of knowledge:
contemporary skills, foundational concepts, and intellectual capabilities.” [4-5]
In a later report on information fluency, Gibson stated that “Fluency conveys a dynamism
in the learning process well-suited to highly mobile students who expect constant
technological change… This construct of IT fluency introduced the notion of fluency
itself, suggesting a dynamic, maturational aspect to acquiring technology skills.” [6]
Though immersive technologies were not the focus of fluency at the time, this framework
transfers well to the mastery of competencies, skills and knowledge required within an
immersive learning environment. Deeper levels of understanding and higher levels of
fluency are required for immersive fluency in a similar manner to those required for
information fluency. In addition, learning within an immersive environment encourages
the student to draw from, and develop, different literacy types.
Results
This immersive approach is applied in the Master of Arts in Learning and Emerging
Technologies (MALET) at SUNY Empire State College. The theory and practice of
immersion provides graduate students with immersion in virtual worlds and experimental
environments as they acquire fluency across literacies. Learners co-create in collaborative
virtual settings as designers of teaching and learning experiences. They participate in peer
review in preparation for an open, juried showcase presented in virtual worlds, and
design a complete learning environment for the Advanced Design Seminar. The fluency
they acquire requires moving beyond literacies as they work in environments that foster a
host of experiences leading to visual, digital, media, cultural, and critical fluencies.
Wankel and Blessinger propose the following application benefits to learner-centered
immersive environments:
1) Intragroup and intergroup dialogue and collaboration in a multiplicity of complex
situations and contexts
2) Immediacy, a sense of belonging, and group cohesiveness, which fosters shared
identity and culture
3) Mediation to facilitate learning tasks, thereby making learning more enjoyable
and interesting
4) The development of multiple perspectives and multiple modes of inquiry though
role play and personal reflection and through the development of ethical
reasoning skills, and
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5) Individualized learning that is more personally meaningful to each student and
more authentic and conducive to how today’s students experience learning in their
real life-worlds. [7]
The fully online graduate program MALET program provides multiple, cross-course
opportunities for students to experience the benefits described above. In addition, open
house events, receptions, festivals, graduate meetings and showcase events hosted within
virtual worlds further enhance the student and faculty immersive experience. The
learning and emerging technologies program has the following goals, which align with
the benefits proposed by Wankel and Blessinger:
1. Consider the social, ethical and legal impacts of new technologies on our lives,
individually and collectively.
2. Explore the multiple, unfolding political and economic impacts of digital media as a
transformative agent in the global civic and market arenas.
3. Develop an understanding of how people learn in technology-mediated
environments.
4. Examine and evaluate learning that occurs in technology mediated environments, and
the impact of digital tools, resources and pedagogical methods in these settings.
5. Acquire the skills and capacity to identify, employ and evaluate technologically
supported tools and methodologies.
6. Conduct original research projects both individually and in collaborative facultystudent teams in order to expand knowledge in the field. [8]
Many of these goals are met as the student and faculty convene in immersive learning
environments to communicated and collaborate as they design learning experiences.
Term 1
Learning with Emerging
Technologies: Theory and
Practice
New Media and New Literacies
Term 2
Design of Online Learning
Environments
Social and Ethical Issues in the
Digital Era
Term 3
Evaluating Learning In
Participatory Learning
Environments
Advanced Design Seminar:
Portfolio Project
Table 1: YEAR 1 Core Courses
Term 1
Elective
Elective
Term 2
Elective
Elective
Term 3
Pro-Seminar
Research or Capstone Project
Table 2: YEAR 2 Electives and Research Seminars
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Program Courses
Game Based Learning
Identities and Communities
in Immersive Environments
Advanced Program
Planning/Systems Thinking
Advanced Evaluation and
Analytics
Computers, Ethics and Society
Other Courses
Individualized Studies
Selections from other graduate programs:
MBA, MA in Social Policy, MLA (liberal studies),
MAT (teaching), MAAL (adult learning)
Selections from certificate programs
Practicum
Research
Design
Teaching
Table 3: Elective Types
Students start their immersive experience with low stakes requirements. They must attend
an in-world open house and orientation, which will allow them to familiarize themselves
with navigating the virtual space while learning about program expectations. At this point
in the program, they only need to create an avatar account, log into the world, teleport to
the College campus, and find their way to a seat. During this initial meeting, they learn to
communicate using chat, instant messaging, group functions, profile management, and
voice functions of the platform.
Figure 1. Initial Immersion. Immersion begins with the MALET Opening Reception.
Students receive an orientation to the program, and virtual environment
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As students begin their studies, each of the courses introduces them to aspects of virtual
and immersive literacy that will assist them in acquiring competency in immersive
education. They learn the theory and practice of learning with emerging technologies, and
are introduced to new media and new literacies. In the second term, the students attend a
second orientation. This time, they are the senior group welcoming a newer cohort, and
assisting their incoming peers in mastering the basic entry skills in the immersive
environment. They learn to design online learning environments, and address social and
ethical issues in the digital era.
Figure 2. Learning Integration. The first sessions require a conversion of digital media,
technology, and communication skills as students begin to integrate their learning and
prepare for complex tasks.
The third term sequence moves the students from literacy to fluency. Students evaluate
learning in participatory environments as they create within immersive virtual
environments during the culminating first year course: Advanced Design Seminar. The
advanced seminar includes multiple immersion experiences, including project creation,
presentation, and peer review.
Interpretations
In this final core course of the MALET Program, students continue to deepen their
knowledge of theories and practices pertaining to instructional design and emerging
technologies. They create a body of work that reflects the ability to integrate theory and
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skills of design and development, learning principles, and assessment methods. This
knowledge and skill is demonstrated in the creation of a comprehensive multimedia
project for their ePortfolio or their professional work environment. This project should
demonstrate the student’s growth as a specialist in emerging technologies as well as
incorporate their own past skills, knowledge, and/or interests on their chosen topic.
Personal reflection is used to self-evaluate their own evidence of learning and to make
deeper connections between the concepts learned in the other courses.
Students incorporate knowledge of instructional methods, learning theories and
evaluation techniques with principles of instructional design and multimedia
development to create a web-based or instructional design project. Students might
choose to explore topics such as: how to apply learning theories to instructional design
and assessment models; how to experiment with new technology tools to address a
context-specific problem; how to implement, manage and evaluate a design project; how
to analyze the effectiveness of a project designed using a particular model but used in
different educational settings. Program participants take part in a two-day immersive
juried Design Showcase, where they present their design portfolios, and join in peer
review and feedback discussions. [9]
Figure 3: Creative Collaboration. Students co-create at a distance in collaborative
virtual environments as part of their learning.
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Students are evaluated on their ability to create an effective multimedia project that meets
the criteria established by the student within the stated course goals. The project is
expected to be completed at a graduate, professional level, peer-reviewed, framed with
the appropriate theory, assessed, and evaluated. Specifically, their work is assessed using
the following criteria:
1. Alignment with stated Program Goals (G) and Specific Learning Objectives
(SLOs) for this course. Students must identify which goals and SOs align with each
section of their project and specify how they are met. [See S1]
2. Alignment with NETS student standards
http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx
Students must identify which NETS Student standards align with each section of their
project and specify how they are met.
3. Alignment with NETS teacher standards http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-forteachers.aspx
Students must identify which NETS Teacher standards align with each section of their
project and specify how they are met.
4. Peer review and critique of projects
They are assigned as peer reviewer to 2-3 peer projects.
5. A substantive final reflective paper used to self-evaluate the student’s evidence of
learning and to make deeper connections between the concepts learned in the other
courses. This is a synthesis of the project within a learning framework, and would include
a discussion of each iteration of the project with a reflective introduction and conclusion.
6. Final integration of project into ePortfolio and participation in Immersive
Design Showcase. [10]
Conclusion
This preliminary exploration a theory of immersive fluency attempts to demonstrate that
a carefully designed program built to progressive move students from an introductory
literacy level to fluency in immersive technologies (and related skills, knowledge and
competencies). Whereas students entering the program may have little or no experience
in the immersive environment, scaffolding, peer support, and total immersion in complex,
collaborative virtual spaces provide them with the a gradual acquisition of immersive
fluency.
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1. L. Johnson, S. B. Adams, M. Cummins, V. Estrada, A. Freeman, et al. NMC Horizon
Report: 2013 Higher Education Edition. (The New Media Consortium, Austin,
Texas, 2013)
2. “The term ‘digital and media literacy’ is used to encompass the full range of
cognitive, emotional and social competencies that includes the use of texts, tools and
technologies; the skills of critical thinking and analysis; the practice of message
composition and creativity; the ability to engage in reflection and ethical thinking; as
well as active participation through teamwork and collaboration.”
3. R. Hobbs. Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action. (The Aspen Institute,
Washington, DC, 2010)
4. T. Mackey, T. Jacobson. Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy. College
& Research Libraries [serial online]. January 2011;72(1):62-78.
5. National Research Council (U.S.). Being fluent with information technology.
(National Academy Press , Washington, DC, 1999)
6. Gibson C. Information Literacy and IT Fluency. Reference & User Services
Quarterly [serial online]. Spring2007 2007;46(3):23-59
7. C. Wankel, P. Blessinger. Increasing student engagement and retention using
immersive interfaces: virtual worlds, gaming, and stimulation. (Emerald, Bingley,
UK, 2012)
8. Gal, D. et al. Master of Arts in Learning and Emerging Technologies Full Program
Proposal. (SUNY Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, NY 2011)
9. Advanced Design Seminar: Portfolio Project Official Course Description (SUNY
Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, NY 2012)
10. Allain, Nicola Marae. Advanced Design Seminar: Portfolio Project (Online course
documents. SUNY Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, NY 2012).
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Supplementary Materials
S1. Key Learning Outcomes [8]
REINF=Reinforced
SLO3: Apply an understanding of emerging technologies to the personally-valued education and social
systems that they would like to develop or support from the knowledge, skills, and abilities gained within
the MALET program.
SLO7: Identify and assess current uses of technology tools in learning environments relevant to one’s own
context.
SLO10: Create new practices, products, and performances.
SLO 11: Produce high quality, cohesive, clear and effective learning products – whether they are papers,
reports, electronic multi-media or other ICT products.
SLO 14: Demonstrate the ability to produce projects in cooperative teams.
SLO 15: Demonstrate ability to communicate effectively in groups by supporting and/or generating
consensus.
SLO 19: Design and conduct effective evaluations that capture how specific ICT tools impact learning.
SLO 22: Consider the ways that today’s technology implementers improve one’s own learning and
understanding, by engaging in a range of activities (workshops, forums, and affinity groups.
M/A = Master/Assessed
SLO1: Understand how different learning theories inform the planning, creation, and facilitation of learning
experiences with new technologies.
SLO2: Demonstrate the ability to use technology tools and skills beyond traditional modes of production
(products as material artifacts and commodities) to consider them tools of mediation, collaboration, and
design development.
SLO5: Create new content relevant to personal needs or professional contexts.
SLO 9: Demonstrate the ability to use inquiry to critique/evaluate existing technology and digital tool use.
SLO 12: Exhibit willingness to participate with, listen to, and support effectively and responsibly the
participants in a learning community.
SLO 17: Develop and evaluate technology tools that are effective for other learners.
SLO 18: Demonstrate the ability to design, disseminate and study the usability of technology tools that will
be used by learners in one’s own work environment.
SLO 21: Document a critically reflective ability to learn new technology tools in an independent and selfdirected way.
SLO 23: Articulate a personal and original perspective on the uses and applications of emerging
technologies, going beyond the ideas shared by instructors, reading, and resources.
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PAPER
Immersive Learning in Education
Authors: 1Dr Olinkha Gustafson-Pearce, 2Dr Julia Stephenson
Affiliations:
1
Dr Olinkha Gustafson-Pearce, Brunel University School of Engineering and Design Uxbridge
Middlesex UB8 3PH olinkha.gustafson-pearce@brunel.ac.uk
2+Dr
Julia Stephenson, Brunel University, Uxbridge Middlesex UB8 3PH
julia.stephenson@brunel.ac.uk
Abstract:
As the concept of immersive learning is becoming a reality, the focus of this paper is to
explore the use of Web 3D in the context of higher education and whether its integration
has significant educational benefits to the students. Findings from the study were
categorised into five main themes: preconceptions, usability, progression, satisfaction and
potential. Overall, the integration of Web 3D appears useful in supporting and increasing
the quality of student learning as it can offer a plethora of benefits. Furthermore, the
authors argue that a relevant and timely introduction to new concepts and technologies is
a fundamental objective in order to deflect any perceived misconceptions thus avoiding a
negative learning experience.
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One Sentence Summary: This study uses a virtual world environment and computermediated communication to develop interactive learning environments for University
Design students.
1.0 Introduction
An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly,
is the ultimate competitive advantage (Jack Welch).
The twenty-first Century University is in a period of transition. According to Freedman
(2008), “Today, higher education is at a historical juncture, transitioning from the
industrial era to the information era, and from a national perspective to a globalized one”.
In addition and equally significant, the 21st century student is evolving. Having grown up
with an assortment of technologies and ubiquitous access, combined with the explosion
of Web 2.0, the old paradigm of learning, that is, the passive teacher-centred approach, is
becoming no longer applicable. The requirement of the ‘new generation’ student is rather
one that is collaborative, autonomous and also exploratory. Furthermore, presentation of
information is changing as ‘new technologies’ become ubiquitous. It no longer has to be
in a static sequential order or hierarchical structure but rather networked, highly
collaborative and community-based, an impressive example being Cloudworks (OULDI,
2010; Conole & Culver, 2009a; Conole & Culver 2009b). Thus, in order to cope with the
demands and expectations that are being placed on institutions, they need to adapt and
cater for the market force, in order to survive. For curriculum design to remain viable,
there is a need to utilize technology to stay ahead of learners. By embracing innovation,
institutions keep up with, and possibly exceed, learner’s expectations.
Many learning centres have found that the use of Web 2.0 tools, such as social
networking, micro-blogging and media-sharing, in addition to the ’standard’
‘Blackboard’ type tools (Gillespie, Boulton, Hramiak & Williamson, 2007), have
enhanced and augmented traditional teaching methods, thus embracing the “networked
world” we live in (Siemens, 2008). However, as the web moves into the arena of Web
3D, further opportunities are arising to enable the student and the learning provider to
develop these new learning environments, which, if designed coherently can provide
powerful, pedagogically sound, learning environments, capable of covering different
educational considerations (Stephenson, Murray, Alberts, Parnis, Sharma, Fraser et al.
2008; Murray, Alberts & Stephenson, 2010). Furthermore, the authors of this paper are in
agreement with Burgess, Slate, Rojas-LeBouef & LaPrairie (2010) that constructing and
managing virtual worlds is considerably disparate to that of face-to-face classrooms or
Learning Management Systems. According to Messinger, Stroulia, Lyons, Bone, Niu,
Smirov et al, (2009) “[virtual world] participation has grown exponentially since 2000,
due to improvements in virtual reality technology (adapted from electronic gaming),
continued drops in personal computer prices, increases in computing capacity, and
greater broadband network access”.
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As Web 3D is not bound by the constraints of real-world physics (Wiecha,
Heyden, Sternthal & Merialdi, 2010) it therefore has the power to create ‘fantasy’
scenarios, or to replicate real life, which in some cases might be difficult or unachievable
to replicate in the real world (Twining, 2009), whilst simultaneously providing the user
opportunities for rich multi-sensory immersive experiences. For example, Web 3D users
can attend and interact at virtual conferences, meetings, focus groups, lectures, or time
travel to historical enactments and participate in role plays, journey through constructs
such as the human body or the DNA helix at the micro level, explore outer space, practice
foreign language skills, or partake in simulations, thus encouraging experiential learning
(Jarmon, Traphagen, Mayrath & Trivedi, 2008). As a result of the lack of limitations in
Web 3D platforms, such unconstrained environments allow participants to practice
repeatedly, procedures or skills in a safe and cost effective environment, reflect on their
learning, access content on demand, network, interact, communicate, collaborate, ad
infinitum.
Thus equally importantly, Web 3D lends itself to a diverse range of educational
disciplines; for example, medical/healthcare (Hansen, 2008; Wiecha et al. 2010), oral
production (Petrakou, 2010) chemistry (Lang & Bradley, 2009), natural sciences/ecology
(Wrzesien & Raya, 2010), epidemiology/public health (Gordon, Bjӧrklund, Smith &
Blyden, 2009) and clinical psychology (Gorini, Gaggioli, Vigna & Riva, 2008) to name
just a few. Therefore, in this paper we conducted a conjectural analysis to explore the
perspectives of virtual world usage from the view of the student and gain an insight into
whether Web 3D is being accepted and embraced by 21st century students.
2.0 Material and Methods
2.1. Introduction
The aim of this research study was to examine the effect and perceptions of an immersive
3D environment, namely Second Life, on University undergraduates. In this study we
principally relied on volunteered student evaluation reports as a means for data collection
(N=43). The class cohort were 129 Level 2 Design students, who were asked to conceive
and design an exhibition in Second Life. The ‘focus’ of the brief, was to present a
‘Design orientated’ exhibition. The students were assigned working groups of no more
than 12 students, but were encouraged to share resources and information. These students
are required to design, manage and present their Major Project show at Level 3, and this
exhibition in Second Life, was to give them practical experience of some of the factors
that they will need to consider, to professionally present the final year show.
2.2. The Graphic Communication Module (Second Life element)
Level 2
Graphic Communication is a 12 week course, taught with a weekly 1 hour lecture and a 2
hour lab (computer) session. At the start of this module none of the students had any
previous experience in Second Life, although a few had knowledge of World of Warcraft
(Blizzard Entertainment Inc). In the first lecture the students were introduced to the
concept of virtual worlds, and the purpose of the ‘engagement’ and the brief, was
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discussed. The students were given basic training in “how to function” in Second Life
(walking, talking, flying, sitting, etc.), in the first lab session, and were asked to explore
the Second Life environment over the course of the following week. To aid them in this,
they were given a variety of landmarks. In the following weeks, they were taken from
‘basic’ to ‘advanced builder skills’, by the tutor. This cohort of students are experienced
in many advanced design packages (software), such as the CS suite (including Flash),
CAD, etc. They also have extensive physical workshop skills (metal, wood, plastics,
etc.). Therefore they are fully competent in many of the base requirements required to
‘build’ in a Web 3D program. In this case it was a question of ‘refining skills' rather than
teaching from basics with regard to the building tools. The weekly lecture focused on key
elements of exhibition design; graphics, planning, user studies, signage, etc. whilst the
supervised tutorial lab sessions were to assist the students in the planning and building of
the exhibits. Students were also expected to work unsupervised between sessions. The
learning outcomes for the module fell into four categories (see Table 1) and the course
was structured to enable the students to achieve these outcomes.
•
Knowledge and Understanding
•
•
•
Cognitive Skills
•
•
Practical Skills
Transferable Skills
•
•
•
recognise the application of appropriate
visual languages in the design process
recognise the fundamental elements of visual
communication
identify and express the appropriateness of
the graphic elements to design.
express the variety and complexity of their
visual thinking.
recognise the multi-disciplinary nature of the
design process.
recognise and evaluate the role of the internet
in visual communication and design.
design and produce confident, competent and
expressive visualisations of both two, and
three-dimensional objects using both
traditional and electronic media.
manage their work to a high standard with a
high professional standard of presentation.
have a command of many of the processes
and techniques appropriate to the internet.
Table 1: The learning outcomes for the module (four categories)
"
The 12 week taught programme was from January to March, with the project
submission due after the Spring break. Many of the groups had incomplete projects by
the end of the semester. Students then dispersed to a variety of locations, from the
United Kingdom to International. The ability to enter the Second Life environment via
broadband connections meant that students could work together, which they would have
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found very difficult or impossible, if they had used more traditional methods.
"
The main submission requirement for each group (n=10 groups) was to present an
exhibition in Second Life (Figures 1-4 illustrating the final exhibition space). When
designing the exhibition, students were asked to use features of the virtual world such as
3D models, posters, information ‘packages’, ‘asset linking’, etc. In addition groups were
required to ‘link’ relevant ‘assets such as a website. As part of the submission materials,
students were asked to do workbooks which charted the ‘journey’ the student had
undertaken throughout the module. Many of the students included a Conclusion. In order
to do quantitative analyses of the data, a series of questions was formulated and the
Conclusions were interrogated to form a basis for statistical analysis.
Figure 1. The Inspire exhibition - Isambard Island
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Figure 2. Picture the Music exhibition - Isambard Island
Figure 3. The Time exhibition - Isambard Island
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Figure 4. The Brunel Automotive exhibition - Isambard Island
3.0 Results and Discussion
Students provided extensive feedback (n=43 returns) about Web 3D experiences in their
evaluation reports; quantitative and qualitative data revealed that the assignment was an
enjoyable experience and equally importantly students were pleased with the overall
outcome of their project. From the data collected, five main themes were identified:
Preconceptions, Usability, Progression, Satisfaction and Potential.
Table 2: Evaluation data – preconceptions, usability, progression, satisfaction and
potential
Question
1 (no)
Preconceptions
100%
2
3
4
5 (yes)
5%
70%
23%
0
Have you had any experience of Second Life before
engaging with this module?
Did you find the introduction to Second Life
comprehensive?
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0
0
5%
16%
79%
Progression
Do you think Second Life is a good environment to
practice building skills?
Do you feel that working as a group helped you to
achieve the project outcomes?
0
0
7%
19%
74%
10%
20%
32%
18%
20%
Do you think there was enough communication
between group members?
18%
17%
27%
18%
20%
Satisfaction
Overall, did you enjoy the Second Life experience?
0
0
14%
18%
68%
Potential
Would you use Second Life again as a ‘Design’
medium?
0
2%
14%
14%
70%
Usability
Did you find the building tools easy to use?
3.1 Preconceptions
Several students openly conveyed their negative perceptions at the onset of the course,
namely their scepticism towards using this multiuser virtual environment and also its lack
of relevance to the module. Analysis of the data in Table 2 revealed that all students
actually had no previous experience of SL prior to embarking on this module, which
could be an attributing factor to their preconceptions. It was interesting to witness that
these attitudes subsequently transformed to those of appreciation over time, for example
one student commented: “At first, I was sceptical about SL and did not understand why it
was included as part of the [Graphic Communication] module. However, throughout the
course of the term, I have begun to appreciate how designers can use the virtual world to
their benefit”. Thus, once students had embraced SL, they began to appreciate the
potential it could offer. For example creating 3D prototypes with ease, the cost
effectiveness of achieving goals that would otherwise be difficult (or impossible) in the
real world, its impact on businesses and also people’s lives (especially young designers)
and the simplicity (and fun) of communicating with peers remotely (both in the UK and
internationally). Furthermore, another student expressed: “At first we were all highly
dubious of SL as a viable means of communication, but I feel that the majority of people
who had this view will have had their minds changed through the course of the project”.
3.2 Usability
Students had mixed opinions about the platform. In terms of building in Second Life,
comments ranged from being “remarkably intuitive” to “difficult to grasp in the first
instance”, additionally however, data in Table 2 revealed that the majority of students
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(79%) found the building tools easy to use. Furthermore, some regarded the software as
‘crude’ and ‘quite primitive’, however, it is worth noting that this cohort are level 2
Design students and are therefore used to engaging with rich, dedicated CAD software.
One student commented that: “Although SL can be frustrating at times, especially the
build interface, I have learned that it is a fantastic medium for presenting material. The
3D areas can create excellent atmospheres and effects and can provide a real
educational experience. I have enjoyed the interactivity that is possible in SL”; this
response was indeed representative of several students. For some, the notion of
frustration with the build interface was evident too; students felt restricted as they had a
limited primitive (basic shapes that are used for building) count (due to sim restrictions
students were limited to 450 prims per group), and to a lesser extent space, thus
impacting on their creative flair.
3.3 Progression
Several participants in this study valued the opportunity of integrating Web 3D into their
module as they saw it as an addition to their educational development; it allowed
communication on different levels, although according to Table 2, students did not
really feel there was enough communication achieved between group members.
However this was not seen as specifically a Second Life issue rather a ‘group working’
issue. In addition it was felt that it gave them the ability and practice to develop and
enhance exhibition setup skills, stretch boundaries and provide freedom of building with
easily achievable realistic feel and textures in a highly cost effective medium. Student
commented included:
"
• “Personally I am thankful that I have experienced using SL as [it] opens up
different doors and allows us to communicate on different levels.”
•
“I found this project a definite expansion of my mind I didn’t expect SL to
perform in the way it did and it definitely stretched my boundaries and involved
me in things that I would not have naturally part taken in. I found the building in
SL remarkably intuitive and it is a quick way to display an exhibition layout and
how it will flow”.
•
“Learning the use of a virtual world system and using another CAD program are
extra skills to my growing list”.
3.4 Satisfaction
Generally, students were unfamiliar with using Second Life, but this did not impact on
their motivation to complete their projects. Analysis of data revealed that students
appreciated the experience of learning and transferring their newfound knowledge within
the Web 3D platform. Satisfyingly, students were pleased with the outcome of their
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projects, comments included:
"
•
“I have thoroughly enjoyed completing this project and getting to grips with SL, a
program I had not heard of or used before the beginning of this project….I look forward
to continuing to use SL”.
•
“The project overall was an interesting experience, the creation of a product that
functioned entirely in the virtual world made the project enjoyable to work on and a good
learning experience”.
•
“I have fully enjoyed the experience of SL and have tried my best to get fully engaged
within what was a new experience and world for me”.
3.5 Potential
There was ample evidence to support the notion that Web 3D has great potential;
examples included, the concept of interaction, particularly as users are not confined by
geographical distance and also the idea of partaking in activities that would otherwise be
inconceivable in the real world due to multiple factors such as time, economical and
infrastructural constraints. Additionally, students felt that they would use SL again as a
design medium (see Table 2). Once students had engaged with the platform they were in
a position to have powerful views, comments included:
"
•
“Whilst getting to grips with the vast SL web experience, I found more and more that the
possibilities of Web 3.0 interaction were huge.”
•
“I did however enjoy my time using SL, and as such have realised its potential for
improving the lives of people, and businesses. The fact that I could work on this project
from Spain indeed proves the usefulness to internationally communicate your message,
hold business conferences or just say hi to a relative from far way. Web 3.0 even still in
its early stages is a valuable tool for anyone to use, but I eagerly wait to see how it
develops from here”.
•
“Once the novelty of playing around in SL wore off and the work began, I began to see
the possibilities that the interactive environment offered. The exhibition in SL allowed for
things that would not be possible in real life, and the fact the members of the group ...
could just meet up in SL rather than in real life made construction easier”
•
There is a lot of potential with a program such as this and the concept to me is fantastic.
In the future I can see myself using SL further and developing my skills on the program
as it is a relatively inexpensive way to funnel viewers to your build”.
The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of engaging with an immersive
virtual world environment from the perspective of the Design student and to investigate if
such environments have a niche within the current and future educational system.
Interestingly, from the student feedback generated in this study, once the student had
engaged with the medium, analysis indicated that the majority of the students felt that the
virtual world environment was beneficial to their educational development.
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Furthermore, our findings concretised the notion that virtual world platforms can
offer experiences that would be either impossible or difficult to replicate in the real
world, an opinion supported by Twining (2009). Interestingly however, some students
expressed their dislikes towards the project, but did not comment from a ‘tool use’
perspective, but rather towards their lack of planning, organising and commitment,
especially as they were required to work in teams: “I did feel like I was carrying the
burden of the whole group on my shoulders and I wasn’t even the group leader” and “A
lot of time could have been saved by the group taking a much more structured approach
to the project and more detailed planning. But through all the mistakes I have made with
the planning/organisation I have learnt lessons for next time!”.
Teamwork, communication, delegation and time management are examples of key
soft skills that students need to be confident in, especially in preparation for the
workforce. Thus an additional ‘learning outcome’ for projects such as this would be to
specifically use the ‘immersive’ qualities of the virtual world platform to enhance and
encourage these transferable skills.
Noor (2010) has acknowledged that virtual worlds certainly have a place in the
21st century as they convert the 2D flat Internet to a ‘fully immersive’ ‘experienced’
environment. Noor further comments, “The richness of experience in virtual worlds can
be significantly enhanced, and their potential realized, through the integration of a
number of technologies and facilities, some of which are currently under development”.
Realising the potential of virtual worlds is very much echoed in our study as student
evaluation data revealed that numerous students recognised the importance of learning
the skills and tools inherent in the virtual world interface. At the end of the project they
particularly acknowledged the benefits and appreciated the opportunity to interact with
the medium as part of their module. To quote a student: “Even if one disagrees with the
idea, SL is the wave of the future, one cannot deny its prominence and relevance to the
Internet not to mention the business opportunities involved with selling what is essential
intellectual property”.
However, at the other end of the spectrum, findings from this study also revealed
that students were considerably sceptical about using the platform at the onset of the
project. The results here suggest that students tended to have significant misconceptions
about virtual world usage. However, once they engaged with the virtual platform, their
attitudes tended to be encouraging. Ignorance or misconceptions about virtual world use,
technology and possibilities, seemed to be a key factor which generated negativity. To
quote another student from our study, “One of the best things about the brief was that it
challenged us to approach a design problem on a platform that we had never considered,
a virtual world, and though it took time to realise the full potential of this, the experience
has taught me to always approach a problem with fresh eyes and not with
preconceptions”.
"
"
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4.0 Conclusion
This study specifically looked at the use by undergraduate Design students of the
virtual world environment Second Life. These students are well used to working
collaboratively in a ‘real world’ setting and are fully familiar with Design specific
software, such as CAD programmes. Initially it was felt that they would move into the
virtual world setting with ease, however the study showed that initial scepticism and the
need for enhanced project management skills by the students were the major factors that
needed further consideration by the teaching team.
Certain ‘moderating factors in the ‘real world’ setting such as the tutors, to a
certain extent, managing students ‘work practices’, or constraints, such as workshop or
studio open times, which can be seen as regulating factors for project and time
management. However when introducing a virtual world environment, which is a ‘open,
any-time access’ environment, where the students are required to manage their own
collaborative projects, with far more autonomy than in many traditional formal settings,
additional ‘soft skill’ information and tutoring may be required. This may be different
from previously experienced practice, and potentially may more reflect a ‘real world’
work environment, in that the students need to be organised and to ‘project manage’ at a
higher level than they might otherwise have needed to do in the university setting. This
module was Graphic Communication and used the virtual world as the ‘environment’
which enabled the students to realise their projects.
In many cases where modules are conducted in a virtual world setting, the
module leader may simply transfer the prescribed learning outcomes and structure of the
module to the virtual world. In this study it was found that additional skills were needed
by the students that were not ‘strictly’ within the module descriptors. However the
acquisition of these skills (management, organisation, planning, etc.) are soft skills that
are needed in the ‘workplace’ and are potentially more accurately reflected through use
of an immersive, open access 3D virtual environment.
In addition a lack of knowledge or understanding of the ‘tool’, can lead to
misconceptions, and consequently negativity, which can limit a student’s engagement
with the core learning. Therefore, when introducing a new tool, it is important to fully
explain and demonstrate the concept and its relevance to the student, otherwise a lack of
knowledge of new technologies or software can result in failure by the student, to
acknowledge potential benefits. Subsequent to this study, Second Life has been
introduced to the students as ‘a stadia in which the game is played’ and it is highlighted
that the media is not ‘the game’. This clear separation between the tool and the required
outcomes, is especially important when the tool is as complex and immersive as a virtual
world.
th
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Burgess, M.L., Slate, J.R., Rojas-LeBouef, A., & LaPrairie K. (2010) Teaching and
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PAPER
Making it Real: The Cosmic Background Radiation Explorer App
Author: R. Blundell1
Affiliations:
1
Macquarie University.
*Correspondence to: richard.blundell@mq.edu.au
Abstract:
The Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR) is a keystone piece of consilient evidence in
support of modern cosmology and is critical to understanding the subsequent evolution of
the universe. Much of what we know about the Big Bang and subsequent evolution of the
universe is inferred from the study of the anisotropic fluctuations recorded in the
microwave radiation represented in the CBR image. While the CBR is one of the most
fundamental and empirically supported phenomena in all of cosmology, widespread
public perception and student understanding of the CBR remains inappropriately weak. In
this article, we argue for new phenomenological approaches to teaching about abstract
subjects by building conceptual understanding on top of real-world, phenomenological
experience. We designed a mobile app to implement this research specifically for the
CBR. The app does this by simulating the CBR as it would be observed if one could finetune their eyes to see in the microwave radiation. While conventional means of educating
about the CBR have failed to capture and convey its essential relevance to daily
experience, the Cosmic Background Explorer App addresses this problem by providing a
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simulated, geospatial, interactive, and phenomenological experience of the CBR. This
paper reports on the theoretical, pedagogical, and technical aspects of the project.
One Sentence Summary: This paper describes the philosophical, pedagogical, and
technical aspects of an educational mobile app for simulating an in-situ experience of the
CBR.
Introduction
Any attempt to teach what we know about the early universe, or the history of the
universe in its entirety (such as in Cosmic Evolution or Big History courses), should
begin with the beginning of our knowledge. This means starting with the physics of the
Big Bang. Much of what we know about the Big Bang and subsequent evolution of the
universe is inferred from the study of the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR).
The CBR is one of the most fundamental and empirically supported phenomena in all of
cosmology [1]. The entire modern cosmological model rests on the CBR because
everything that follows it is rooted in the primordial temperature fluctuations represented
by the splotches of blue, turquoise, orange and red (See Fig 1).
But the true significance of these quantum-level perturbations is impossible to grasp
unless one holds an overall understanding of how these minute temperature differences
(or densities) have evolved into the large-scale galactic structure we see today.
Subsequent topics, such as the formation of stars and galaxies, accretionary physics of
planetary systems, the emergence of complexity, and the mega-scale structure of the
universe, depend on integrating the physics and spatial ubiquity of the CBR.
Figure 1. The Cosmic Background Radiation (ESA)
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It is common for educators to introduce the CBR by telling the wonderful serendipitous
story of how Penzias and Wilson discovered it. They include language like: “The CBR is
the echo of the Big Bang;” or “The CBR is the leftover radiation from the Big Bang.”
These conversations are typically supported using images of the CBR produced by
NASA and the European Space Agency [2]. Published surveys [3,4] and our own
teaching experience suggests that while most students can readily grasp the ideas of
‘echo’ and ‘residual’ radiation, they fail to be able to explain how evolution is the source
for the mega-scale structure of the universe, or even locate where the CBR actually is.
While the NASA and ESA images are excellent resources for visualizing the CBR in
formal learning environments, and discussing the finer points of cosmic microwave
anisotropy, we argue that these images alone routinely fail to place the CBR into a realworld, and thus appropriately meaningful context.
Another way that educators, including ourselves, have tried to bring relevance the CBR is
to explain to students that they can experience the CBR today by ‘un-tuning’ an old-style
television set and observing that about 10% of the static seen is caused by the CBR.
While there is nothing factually incorrect in the content of these approaches, they are
technologically outmoded and inadequate for communicating the immense importance of
the CBR as a cornerstone idea of the Big Bang model.
There are a handful of projects dealing with the conceptual understanding and
visualization of the CBR [5–8] All of these endeavors rely on the large traditional
desktop or other large format (e.g. stationary) monitors and aim to develop sophisticated
conceptual understandings.
More recently, the popular GoogleSky platform includes a “microwave” overlay that
maps the CBR with user-adjusted opacity onto a real-time image of the night sky [9].
While this feature effectively superimposes the CBR onto the present-day structure of the
universe, it does so out of any real-world context (Note: the GoogleSky app for Android
does not include the CBR feature found on the desktop version). While GoogleSky
represents a substantial interface improvement, it still lacks the required
phenomenological component. It does not provide an adequate lived experience upon
which to build a more thorough conceptual understanding. It is also limited by requiring a
large monitor to be useful. Finally, the CBR overlay in GoogleSky is limited to very large
scales and the flat mapping produces indecipherable results when zoomed all the way out.
Because of these limitations, GoogleSky seems inadequate to provide the kind of primary
learning the CBR requires and deserves.
Research Problems
The CBR remains under-appreciated and misunderstood relative to its importance,
ubiquity, and its being a rare example of scientific consilience. While the abstract notions
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and the complex physics of the early universe are known contributors to this low
engagement [4,6], we argue that the initial introduction of the CBR needs to be a more
phenomenological encounter. If students can be introduced to the CBR as a livedexperience first, then they will be better equipped, and more motivated, to engage with it
intellectually when the material gets more sophisticated.
While we are arguing here, in general, for a more relevant, phenomenological, way of
encountering the subject of the CBR, another, more specialized, problem also arises in
the context of narrative-based courses that include the CBR. In courses such as Big
History, where the overall structure is sequential, and the complexity of one
chronological phase builds upon the one preceding it, the issue of keeping concepts
linked in a congruent way is especially important. Because the CBR, and the cognitive
disconnect associated with it, happens early in these types of courses, it can severely
disrupt future learning. We have observed that once students lose their orientation, it is
often very hard to regain it in an adequately meaningful way. By failing to communicate
the genuinely critical aspects of location and relevance of the early the universe, Big
History educators risk losing many students from the outset. This not only deprives
students of a full understanding of the Big Bang model, but also the truly awe-inspiring
and holistic reality of the rise of complexity in the universe – a reality of which they are a
part and can experience with a little technological help and imagination. In a
constructivist paradigm of learning, it is illogical to expect students to successively link
the phases of cosmic evolution into a logical sequence without a primary understanding
of how the CBR predicts the future evolution of the universe. In a very real and
debilitating way, they can get lost as soon as they leave the gate.
The idea proposed in this article is that there is an under-realized way of perceiving the
CBR and that learners who can incorporate this perception will undergo a sort of
transformative relationship with the world. We call this basic transformation in thinking
an epiphany, as in: the usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature
or meaning of something [10]. The specific epiphanies provided by this app are that the
CBR is real, it is out there in the sky, and that the structure sky of today is a real-world
embodiment of the initial temperature fluctuations recorded in the CBR. By the rule of
transitive relation then, the user is a real-world embodiment of the cosmos. We believe
that these new perceptions of the CBR, which are facilitated by this app, constitute an
epiphany of the science type.
Other topics of concern (or epiphanies) for Big History courses which could be addressed
in future apps could include abstract and difficult ideas such as; vast temporal and spatial
scales, emergence and complexity, improbability and anthropocentrism,
uniformitarianism, origins of life plausibility, evolution, and alternative historical and
cultural interpretations.
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Scope of this Work
This project first argues for an innovative approach wherein a real-world context is used
as the environment for a phenomenological first-encounter. We then propose a
specialized learning app to provide this experience using the CBR as its subject. The key
innovation here is to provide a phenomenological base upon which more formal in-class
conceptual understandings can be later built. We do not aim to provide an in-depth
examination of the science of electromagnetism or the CBR. We emphasize this limit in
defining the scope of this app to the initial part of this aim. Filling in the details of
concepts such as cosmic inflation, differentiation, decoupling, and the behavior of
electromagnetic radiation, for example, still require formal learning efforts and
environments. This limitation notwithstanding, we also hope and expect that this app may
find extended application in broadly diverse, informal settings. In any case, this project
enhances the general trend in integrating educational media and software (such as apps)
in the classroom [11].
Theoretical Underpinnings
The arguments and claims of this project emerge largely from our own observations in
teaching and assessing students’ understanding of the CBR. There also exists a rich body
of published literature and empirical research in support of phenomenological education.
What is new is the ability to implement well-crafted educational experiences through
affordable technological means.
Currently, the emerging technological paradigm presents new opportunities to apply
time-tested educational approaches. If the mark of a good idea is indeed timelessness,
then the ideas of the American educational philosopher John Dewey most certainly
qualify. Beginning in the 1890s, Dewey thought deeply, and wrote widely, on the
relationship between human experience and learning. He anticipated the constructivist
theory of learning in which becoming educated meant more than just ones’ cognitive
accrual or rote learning.
Broadly speaking, this app aims to reconnect learning to everyday life. Dewey held deep,
intuitive understandings of the power of personal experiences and made explicit
connections to the formal educational endeavor. In 1909 he was writing about the
importance of “organizing education to bring all its various factors together… into
organic union with everyday life” [11 p. 35].
Dewey also stressed the reciprocal relationship between experience and learning.
Dewey’s idea is explained by Pugh “ Just as experience is a means for enriching and
expanding learning, so learning is a means for enriching and expanding experience” [12
p. 109]. This reciprocal synergy between the lived-experience and learning constitutes the
phenomenological argument for this app.
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Dewey also maintained a dual commitment to the power of aesthetic experience while
also remaining a staunch pragmatist. He reminded us to measure the value of things
insofar as they impacted everyday life. Toward the end of his career he displayed this
pragmatism when he wrote that the value of any philosophy would rest on the answer to
this question: “Does it end in conclusions which, when they are referred back to ordinary
life-experiences and their predicaments, render them more significant, more luminous to
us, and make our dealings with them more fruitful”? [13 p.7].
Finally, Dewey [15] offers insight into this project by making distinctions between more
traditional and progressive definitions of learning. For example, he discusses the
difference between learning concepts (as static knowledge to be acquired) and
encountering ideas (as opportunities to consummate new potentials). Dewey argued that
when we think in terms of ideas, as opposed to concepts, we open up whole new ways of
relating to the material to be learned. In other words, he is framing educational
opportunities as experiences to be had, as opposed to concepts to be merely learned. In
this way, he distinguishes between ordinary experience and “an” experience (the latter
being a richer event, imbued with opportunities for exploration) as having the potential to
change the way we perceive, interact, and participate with the world.
It is compelling that in this technological age, Dewey’s ideas would find new
contemporary application. Handheld, mobile, and multimedia technologies are providing
a new platform on which to build innovative learning experiences.
Implementation
This section describes: the design of the graphical interface; a typical user-progression
through the app; technical considerations; evaluation and the social networking aspects of
this project. As this is the first in a series of ‘epiphany’ apps, we also explain project’s
place within a larger educational framework.
User Progression
The app experience follows a guided sequential progression through the app experience.
Each numbered entry represents a discrete step (or page), while the lettered sections
represent modes as follows:
1. Introductory video vignette: The introductory video has the feel of enthusiastic
exploration suitable for all ages. A human character acts as a guide and introduces
the CBR as the earliest known photograph of the infant universe. The guide
briefly tells the story of the CBR’s discovery, explains what the colors represent,
and how the oval shape is actually because the CBR should be imagined projected
onto the inside surface of a sphere in order to see its true shape (the video will
demonstrate this effect). How scientists have been able to take the picture using a
series of satellites that have cameras tuned to just the right frequency of light (the
video will show a wave spectrum animation) is also covered. This discussion
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explains that we can simulate being able to ‘see’ in microwave frequency light by
adjusting the frequency of our camera. Finally, the guide invites the user to “cross
the threshold” and enter the realm of the CBR. Note: each screen will display
icons of various human forms that can be tapped for context sensitive guidance
(text and audio).
2. Spectrum slider with integrated waveform graphics as a way to adjust the
camera’s light sensitivity (Figure 2). The word “SIMULATION” appears
onscreen throughout these pages to indicate that the camera is not actually
detecting the various wavelengths. At the bottom of the screen is a slider graphic
for adjusting the (simulated) wavelengths that the camera can see in. An audio
tone plays in proportion to the wavelength (low to high).
Figure 2. The wavelength slider graphic
The wavelength slider has click-stops at the following modes (See Figure 3)
A. X-Ray (the screen shows the users hand with X-Ray filter applied)
B. Ultraviolet (the screen shows a flower in the foreground with UV filter)
C. Visible Light (the screen shows the raw image produced by the camera –
no filter),
D. Infrared (the screen shows simulated infrared on a house)
E. Microwave radiation
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Figure 3. Progression through preliminary simulation modes (A-D)
3. When the “Microwave” wavelength is selected, the CBR appears as a background
to the camera image. In this mode, the real-time 3D mapping feature is activated,
simulating an augmented reality experience of the CBR (Figure 4).
Figure 4. CBR Microwave Mode
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4. In the Microwave mode, an icon appears to “play the search pattern game”
(Figure 5A). In this search mode, red arrows guide the user toward the predefined
pattern (patch) that triggers the CBR evolution movie.
Figure 5A (left) and 5B (right). CBR Search Game and Cosmic Evolution Movie
5. The “CBR Evolution Movie” (Figure 5B) illustrates the evolution of the galactic
mega-structure of the particular pre-defined pattern (patch). The movie is
triggered when the user points the camera directly overhead and holds the device
level (screen facing downward). This position activates a feedback vibration and
audio accompaniment begins while the CBR image slowly transitions into a map
of the actual night sky above the user. Through this final exercise the user
experiences how the CBR is the blueprint for the overall structure of the universe.
Evaluation and Dissemination
Evaluation is part of the overall project plan and is being conducted by our university’s
in-house learning and teaching group. Dissemination is also an integrated goal so the
CBR Explorer app will be made available for download free of charge to high school and
colleges worldwide. It will also be available through commercial channels for a nominal
fee. Built in social networking functionality will encourage users to share liberally.
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Technical considerations
The Cosmic Background Explorer App creates simulations of the various electromagnetic
wavelengths through real-time filtering of the image captured by the smartphone camera
(Android or Apple iOS). Three of the primary modes (x-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared),
employ a separate effect filter to simulate what the user would see if the phone’s camera
could detect the specific wavelength. We colorize each of the simulated image streams by
filtering the RGB channels from the CCD. The visible light spectrum applies no filter and
displays raw camera data. The Microwave mode simulation employs a more complex
processing wherein we map the ESA CBR image (See Figure 1) onto very large virtual
3D sphere. The point of view of the user looking at the mobile's screen is in the center of
the sphere. We mix the geospatial data, the CBR image, and the camera’s view by taking
into account the brightness and contrast of the image elements. We use the phone’s
gyroscopic sensors to adjust the CBR image when the camera is moved. During the
pattern search game, we detect the horizontal position of the mobile with the screen
facing downward (phone directly overhead) to trigger the video media (3D animation
explaining the evolution in time of the CBR).
Conclusions
The CBR Explorer app uses the latest high-resolution ESA imagery mapped onto the
interior of a 3D virtual sphere to simulate an in situ lived-experience of the CBR. The
specific aim is to improve conceptual understanding by first providing a self-contained
phenomenological experience. By guiding users toward a lived-experience of the CBR
though a step-wise progression of simulated visualizations, the app highlights the
everyday relevance of an otherwise abstract and static visual image. Several Dewyan
educational philosophies are also implemented. They are; the distinction between
concepts and ideas; the distinction between experience and “an” experience; the role of
aesthetic experience in transformative learning and meaning making; and the power of
lived-experience to bring every day relevance to understanding.
This app serves the research problems by enhancing phenomenological and conceptual
understanding of the CBR. By applying accepted educational theory to emerging,
technologically-facilitated, learning scenarios, this app addresses the lack of student
engagement and appreciation of the Cosmic Background Radiation. While the trend
toward integrating apps into educational curricula is not new, the CBR Explorer is the
first in a series of “Epiphany” apps that enhance the education and communication of
abstract and latent ideas. These apps may stand alone as informal educational experiences
or be used to supplement learning across a wide range of subjects.
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Acknowledgments: Funding for this project is provided by Macquarie University
Innovation Scholarship Program. User interface design and programming coordination by
Fred Adam at http://www.gpsmuseum.eu/.
[1]
Weinberg S., 2008, Cosmology, OUP Oxford.
[2]
European Space Agency, 2013, “Planck reveals an almost perfect Universe /
Planck / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA.”
[3]
Fraknoi A., 2004, “Insights from a survey of astronomy instructors in community
and other teaching-oriented colleges in the United States,” Astronomy Education Review,
3(1), pp. 7–16.
[4]
Wallace C. S., Prather E. E., and K Duncan D., 2011, “A study of general
education astronomy students’ understandings of cosmology. Part I. Development and
validation of four conceptual cosmology surveys,” Astronomy Education Review, 10(1),
pp. 010106–010106.
[5]
Van der Veen J., 2010, “Planck Visualization Project: Seeing and Hearing the
Cosmic Microwave Background,” Science Education and Outreach: Forging a Path to the
Future, p. 295.
[6]
Van der Veen J., McGee R., and Moreland J., 2012, “The Planck Visualization
Project: Immersive and Interactive Software for Astronomy and Cosmology Education.”
[7]
McGee R., Van der Veen J., Wright M., Kuchera-Morin J., Alper B., and Lubin
P., 2011, “Sonifying the Cosmic Microwave Background,” Proc. 17th Int. Conf. on
Auditory Display (ICAD-2011) June, pp. 20–24.
[8]
Dekker G., Moreland J., and Van der Veen J., 2011, “Developing the Planck
Mission Simulation as a multi-platform immersive application,” Proceedings of the
ASME 2011 World Conference on Innovative Virtual Reality, WINVR2011.
[9]
Google Inc., “Google Sky” [Online]. Available: http://www.google.com/sky/.
[Accessed: 30-Mar-2013].
[10]
Merriam Webster, “Epiphany,” (Def. 3a) Merriam Webster Online (2012).
[11]
Bonnington C., 2013, “Can the iPad Rescue a Struggling American Education
System?,” Wired.
[12]
Dewey J., 2010, The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum,
Digireads.com.
[13]
Pugh K. J., 2011, “Transformative Experience: An Integrative Construct in the
Spirit of Deweyan Pragmatism,” Educational Psychologist, 46(2), pp. 107–121.
[14]
Dewey J., 1958, Experience and nature, Courier Dover Publications.
[15]
Dewey J., 1934, Art as Experience.
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ISSN 2325-4041
PAPER
Classroom Group-directed Exploratory Learning through a Full-body
Immersive Digital Learning Playground
Authors: Chin-Feng CHEN1*, Chia-Jung WU1, De-Yuan HUANG2, Yi-Chuan FAN1,
Chi-Wen HUANG1, Chin-Yeh WANG1, and Gwo-Dong CHEN1
Affiliations:
1
Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Central
University, Taiwan, Republic of China
2
Research Center for Science and Technology for Learning, National Central University,
Taiwan, Republic of China
Abstract:
This paper presents an immersive gaming exploratory learning platform, Digital Learning
Playground (DLP), set in a classroom-based collaborative environment. DLP consists of
a digital shared tabletop that serves as a game board for team planning and a shared
Kinect-embedded display that not only casts students in a virtual world but also enables
them to interact with the virtual events through gestures and speech command. The Lshape layout of DLP forms a theatre-like learning environment that entails a clear focus
on knowledge demonstration in a context-relevant immersion through peer collaboration
and observation. Current school learning has been falling short for self-exploratory
learning due to time and resource constrains. This study investigates whether learning
effectiveness and time efficiency could be improved through group-directed exploratory
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learning experiences. Forty-four (44) Taiwanese college students (n = 44) were engaged
in an English learning task. The college students were randomly assigned to one of two
group-directed exploratory learning groups: an experimental group or a self-directed
exploratory group (the control group). The experimental data includes the results of
knowledge vocabulary test that was used for assessing learning outcome, time record of
task completion for time efficiency, and non-participant observation for further details
with respect to learning experience.
One Sentence Summary: The purpose of this research is to assess whether learning
effectiveness and time efficiency could be improved through a group-directed exploratory
learning experience.
Introduction
Exploratory learning and experiential learning has been ongoing for many years in
an effort to achieve relevant learning, but to date it has not been easy to implement in the
formal education setting. Classroom learning has certain characteristics that are difficult
to break through or change. Our research indicates that instructional design of an
immersive environment can be formed to fit into the classroom mechanism and, at the
same time, enhance the quality of learning. The immersive environment that we built,
Digital Learning Playground (DLP), has been adapted in several ways for educational
purposes. Our research has addressed some critical characteristics of the classroom
mechanism and how current technology and common classroom resources cooperate to
improve the quality of classroom-based learning.
1. Background and Motivation
1.1 Practical Concerns and Solution of Classroom Exploratory Learning
From a constructivist’s view, learners are like knowledge explorers in that the
essence of learning is self-discovered and self-inspired through the journey. That is,
authentic learning values the individuals’ mind processing and learning experience.
These two essential elements of learning are fraught with difficulties of practice in formal
curriculum in relation to conventions and restrictions. Such conventions and restrictions
are: (1) set learning objectives; (2) time frames; and (3) a preferred teacher-catered
approach for an easy classroom management strategy.
Thus, formal curriculum usually sets learning objectives for each level of learners
and assessments which are mainly scaled levels of understanding to the knowledge
(instead of process of knowledge exploratory or discovery). Owing to this, the
hypothesis-generation-testing cycles of self-directed exploratory learning are hard to
achieve in conventional school settings[1, 2]. Additionally, it can take time to train
learners’ skills of generating questions and learn by doing it. The time requirement for
induction is unpredictable because instructors typically deal with a class full of students.
By the same token, a key challenge posted as implementing discovery learning is
classroom management. Instructors may find it difficult to manage and monitor each
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student’s progress in a free-exploring environment in comparison to a dominant
approach, such as a show-and-tell lecturing strategy. It seems that ordinary classrooms
have rigid mechanism in terms of knowledge domain instruction, time restriction, and
pursuit of strategies for easy classroom management. This reality must be acknowledged,
yet the quality of learning shouldn’t be sacrificed.
In order to meet common classroom ecology and, at the same time, improve the
overall quality of learning, our research indicates that classroom exploratory learning
should transfer from self-directed to guided group-directed collaborative learning and
from free-exploring environment to task-oriented exploration. Additionally, the design
implementation of the research made use of existing and potential future classroom
resources and technologies such as projectors, interactive white boards (IWBs), and
tablets in order to maintain and enhance contemporary classroom learning.
1.2 Background of Digital Learning Playground
In the first study, we created a theatre-like immersive learning setting, Digital
Learning Playground (DLP), by combining vertical and horizontal displays that provided
students with a knowledge-in-use platform with rich contexts. Several educational
applications for different contexts of students via DLP were implemented.
In the early stage, we used a robot as a learning agent on the stage table. The robot
successfully attracted primary school learners to keep their eyes on the targeted
knowledge[3]. In the second study we transformed classroom flash cards into augmented
reality (AR) code cards to trigger virtual objects on the screen. In this study, we noted
that gathering young learners’ attention was not easy, especially with multiple foci, cards,
a robot, and virtual events[4]. In the third study, conducted in a high school setting, we
applied board-game mechanics on the interactive tabletop and situated the game cards
scenarios on the screen [5].
We observed that learning effectiveness outperformed traditional classroom learning,
and learners were engaging. But there is a rising concern that a board game with
authentic situations, such as educational simulations, usually takes significant time for
learners to explore and wrestle with the problems. Additionally, we must take instruction
efficiency into consideration. Standing on the accumulated experience of the previous
studies, the following sections provide an elaboration of optimal instructional designs for
classroom exploratory learning.
2. Instructional Designs of Implementation
2.1 Instructional Designs of Classroom Immersive Learning Playground
The key elements of instructional design and technology-supported classroom
immersive learning are detailed as follows.
2.1.1 Task-oriented immersive environment with a shared Kinect-supported display
Contemporary learning emphasizes relevant learning in which students are able to
connect or even apply learned knowledge from school to daily life event[6]. Although
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today’s contemporary learning content groups highlighted that they were contextrelevant, this content reform hardly changed the way learners passively receive
knowledge and was merely to provide a knowledge-in-action environment. Actually, a
context-rich immersive learning environment is achievable through supported interactive
computing technologies. As we mentioned earlier, the challenge is not from the
technology but from the conventional classroom mechanism. To incorporate learning
exploration in classroom ecology we suggest that the designed immersive environment be
task-oriented and consistent with learning objectives. Riemann also indicated that taskoriented exploration was easily accepted in pedagogical practice[7].
The emergence of gestural technology tools, such as Nintendo Wii and Microsoft
Kinect, bring the sensation of immersion to a new level by reproducing motor action in a
virtual world[8-10]. Supported by gestural technology, knowledge with context
transforms to a task-based environment that students learn by exploring and manipulating
objects. This immersion can enhance more active construction of meaning. With respect
to the display for simulative situations, we chose a screen and a projector as a shared
display not only to leverage commonly available hardware at schools but also to
demonstrate that instructors can monitor these activities with ease.
2.1.2
Learners’ mirror images forming peer model influence and engaging atmosphere
From a constructivism perspective, learners are active agents of knowledge
acquisition who themselves actively assemble the puzzle of knowledge[11, 12].
However, classroom management is not easy when students take control of the learning.
Common classroom instruction typically revolves around showing, telling and doing.
Showing is knowledge demonstration via textbooks, blackboards, videos; telling is from
the teacher’s instruction; and doing is the practice that involve individual work or group
work.
Our solution was to use peer influence in group-directed learning, where the students
were in charge of showing and telling. We adapted Kinect sensors to embed live student
performances into simulated plots. Kinect-embedded display not only casts the students
into a virtual world, it also enables them to interact with virtual events through gestures
and speech commands.
The performer’s mirror images with interactive context served as knowledge
demonstration. In this sense the performer is like a magician in the screen, and the peer
audience can see the entire competency performance. A performer is also a knowledgein-use presenter, task taker, and an observer (the environment and himself).
We expected that the performer perceived himself as a modeler and intended to be
their very best in front of their peers. As for the peer audience, the active context with
their peer’s image in it serves as an attentive agent to sustain focus on learning the
content. In addition, the task-oriented mechanic drives peer observers to closely assess
other’s performance and to form their later performance. We have fully connected
showing, telling and doing in an immersive show stage and facilitated learning with pack
experience.
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2.1.3 Knowledge exploring under a Group-directed Collaboration
"
Discovery" learning" encourages" students" to" learn" by" trial4and4error[13]." The"
actual" school" practice" may" not" provide" enough" time" for" individuals" to" properly"
experience"trial4and4error"learning."Reinforcing"the"classroom"characteristic,"group"
dynamics," trial4and4error" experience" is" shared" and" guided" through" group4directed"
exploration." The" beauty" of" such" collaboration" is" that" it" facilitates" the" combining" of"
an" individual’s" experience" with" their" background" knowledge" to" accomplish" the"
learning" tasks." We" assert" that" group4directed" strategies" such" as" this" makes"
exploratory"learning"more"time"efficient.""
"
"
2.1.4 Shared collaborative work table with shared task experience
Classroom activities often involve group work such as group discussions, project
assignments, and role-playing. Thus, a collaborative worktable was needed. Several
researchers have reported that interactive tabletops facilitate more collaborative
interactions and awareness of group tasks[14, 15]. Furthermore, games frequently serve
as intrinsic motivators (stimulators) that provide challenge, control, and fantasy[16]. This
was conducted through a simulation setting via a work tabletop where game matters
(such as resources and rewordings) can be sorted and manipulated on the tabletop.
Arranging learning content and gaming resources separately gave the vertical display a
clear presentation for immersion and avoided interruption or distraction from pop-up
game information on the vertical display. In terms of focus management for instructors,
the management became easier by clearly dividing knowledge content on the screen and
gaming elements on the tabletop.
2.2 System Architecture
We incorporated current classroom equipment like a projection screen and
interactive white boards with educational applications and technology, such as Kinect and
tablets, to construct this classroom immersive environment (Figure 1). The user interface
of the full-body immersive Digital Learning Playground consisted mainly of a shared
display and a shared tabletop that was used to interact with authentic learning experiences
embedded in a game flow.
The shared display presented situated scenarios through a projected screen.
Microsoft Kinect was used for embedding the users’ images and for generating
interactive situations by skeleton analysis, gesture analysis, and body tracking. The
shared tabletop allowed direct on-screen manipulation by multiple users. We
implemented two different interfaces: (1) a lying-down IWB and (2) a jigsaw tablet, as
shared tabletop. Learners performed object manipulation and discussion logging on the
IWB. Jigsaw tablets enabled a collection of individual tablets.
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Groups of personal tablets communicated with each other via G-sensor. This
included moving and sending objects to one another’s tablets, and broadcasting events to
the shared display. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) was used to develop the
shared display, IWB and Android tablets. Communications between the shared display
and IWB was conducted through WPF parameters as the tablets communicating with the
shared display through network sockets.
The database of the system included input-output and system information. Inputoutput information included icons, pictures, sound, dialogue, and animation. System
information included video files, system setting file, and positioning coordinates. The
environment setup is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 1. System architecture
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(a)
(b)
Figure 2. a) Setup of DLP and Kinect, b) Two ways to implement shared tabletop
3. Experiment & Methods
3.1 Hypothesis
It is the hypothesis of this study that learning effectiveness and time efficiency can be
improved through group-directed exploratory learning experience.
3.2 Instruction and Task
The designed exploratory learning system was targeted at second language learning,
as EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language)
learners have less experience with non-native languages in their native countries. The
target knowledge is referred to as daily life vocabulary. The topic was Food and Recipe.
The instructional design centered on acting out corresponding activities and experiences
in relevant contexts. There were 26 new words and phrases to learn that were embedded
in the recipe instruction (such as patty, grill, push against, and fill in).
Learners were immersed in a kitchen scene and acted out the role of a kitchen cook.
The kitchen cook is required to carefully read the recipe instruction and make the food
order of the guests/customers (See Figure 3.). The instruction was written in English with
animated picture graphs. Learners needed to detect the meaning and explore the right way
to make food.
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Figure 3. Exploratory learning activity
3.3 Procedure
The subjects were forty-four (44) college students who learned English as their
foreign language. The experiment was held at the National Central University in Taiwan.
A month before the experiment all of the participants were given the pre-test adopted
from a Vocabulary Knowledge Scale, as described in the next section, in order to assess
their prerequisite knowledge. The homogeneity of the results was tested. These showed
that the subjects’ prerequisite knowledge of the target learning objectives were about the
same, F= .27, p > .05 (Table 1). We implemented English activity via DLP. There was no
time limitation for the entire activity. We separated the participants equally into (1)
experimental group (EG) which was the group-directed exploratory learning group and
(2) control group (CG) which was the self-directed exploratory learning group. There
were five (5) students in the experimental group (EG), and one (1) student in the control
group (CG). After the learning activity, there was an immediate post-test.
Table 1. Test of Homogeneity (N = 22)
Pearson Chi-Square
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Asymp. Sig.(2-sided)
320.833a
306
.27
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3.4 Method
The assessment tool of learning effectiveness was the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale
(VKS) (see Figure 4.). Developed by Wesche and Paribakht, VKS is a self-reported
assessment that scales the level of vocabulary comprehension [17]. To assess the level
transition of learned vocabulary comprehension, the subjects had a pre-test and post-test
before and after the learning exploration. As for time efficiency, the time recording tool
was built in DLP to record the time spent on each task. We also used three (3) cameras to
collect learners’ behaviors as observational data.
Sample test item
Patty
.
.
.
.
.
I don’t remember having seen this word before.
I have seen this word before, but I don’t know what it means.
I have seen this word before, and I think it means ______. (synonym or translation)
I know this word. It means ______. (synonym or translation)
I can use the word in a sentence: ________________ (if you do this, please also do section
Meaning of scores
Possible score
.
.
.
.
.
1
2
3
4
5
.)
The word is not familiar at all.
The word is familiar but its meaning is not known.
A correct synonym or translation is given.
The word is used with semantic appropriateness in a sentence.
The word is used with semantic appropriateness and grammatical
accuracy in a sentence.
Figure 4. Sample test item and explanation of scores
4. Result Analysis
To investigate time efficiency between the group-directed and self-directed
exploratory learning, the average time spent on the whole activity (6 tasks) in each
group was recorded. As seen in Table 3, the experimental group’s average time
spent of the task completion was 25.14 minutes while the control group’s average
time spent was 21.08 minutes. The data demonstrate that the group-directed team
spent more time than the self-individual learning. To take school available time
and class size into consideration, the common class period is 40-50 minutes and a
class size is about 30 students. To let every learner take a turn in exploring (selfdirected), it took approximately 632 minutes, which is 16 regular class periods, for
the whole class to complete the activity. Arranging students in a group (5-6
people), it took about 125.7 to 150.8 minutes, which is 3 or 4 regular class periods.
We have concluded that the overall time spent in group-learning was considerably
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more efficient than self-direct learning despite the fact that the group-directed
exploratory learning spent little more time than individual learning.
To investigate learning effectiveness, the difference between the pre-test and
the post-test indicated a progress score for each participant. We conducted t-test to
determine if there was a significant difference between the subject’s prior
understanding and the learned level of the target knowledge after the hands-on
experience. The t-test result illustrates the knowledge acquisition after the activity
in both groups has significant difference (p < .005) (Table 2). It showed that both
groups had significant improvement after the learning activity. The hypothesis of
the experiment was to assess whether the participants of group-directed learning
could acquire certain amount of knowledge through observation without full
participation in task operation. The results indicate that the expected learning
outcome was achieved.
Table 2. Average scores attained in group and individual
Group Pre Test
Group Post Test
Individual Pre
Test
Individual Post
Test
N
Mean
SD
Correlation
t
Sig. (2tailed)
22
22
64.70
88.25
11.28
13.44
.81
-13.84
.000*
22
67.43
10.29
.67
-11.62
.000*
22
86.84
8.37
*significant at p < .005
Table 3. Average time attained in group and individual
N
Mean
Group Average Time
5
25.14
Individual Average Time
22
21.08
SD
4.12
3.31
5. Conclusion and Discussion
The purpose of this research was to assess whether learning effectiveness
and time efficiency could be improved through a group-directed exploratory
learning experience. The findings show that the participants’ comprehension level
after the knowledge-in-action learning had a significant improvement regardless of
whether the learning activities occurred in a group or individually. We found that
relevant hands-on experience had profound influence on learners. Additionally, we
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observed that learners can acquire knowledge through peer observation (as
observed from the data of learning outcomes in the group-directed learning group).
Furthermore, we observed that learning with a group formed a supportive learning
atmosphere that was not possible in individual learning. In self-directed
exploration, many of the participants attempted to finish the tasks as quickly as
possible. We inferred that more individual learners viewed the tasks as games;
numerous errors occurred because of careless reading of the instructions. In
contrast, students in the group-directed team were suggesting, discussing, and
error-correcting. These interactions could also explain the longer time spent by
students who participated in group-based learning.
Learning by doing in a context-relevant environment seems like an
unreachable goal in formal educational settings. We have integrated existed
classroom equipment with other affordable technology tool sets in order to make
such scenarios more accessible to conventional education settings.
6. Acknowledgements
With special thanks to: You-Chih Liu for his help with graphic design. Thanks to
class B of freshman and class B of sophomore in the Department of Computer Science
and Information Engineering at National Central University for their support. This work
is partially supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, under the grant number
NSC 102-2511-S-008-001-MY3.
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C.-Y. Wang et al., in Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on
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J. S. JIANG, G.-D. CHEN, C.-J. WU, W.-J. LEE, in Proceedings of the 19th
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K.-C. Chen, C.-J. Wu, G.-D. Chen, in Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT),
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K. Illeris, Towards a contemporary and comprehensive theory of learning.
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J. Rieman, A field study of exploratory learning strategies. ACM Transactions on
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H.-m. J. Hsu, in 2nd International Conference on Education and Management
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M. Worsley, P. Blikstein, in Annual Meeting of the American Education Research
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M. G. Brooks, J. G. Brooks. (1999).
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C. E. Hmelo-Silver, H. S. Barrows, Facilitating collaborative knowledge building.
Cognition and instruction 26, 48 (2008).
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S. D. Whitehead, D. H. Ballard, Learning to perceive and act by trial and error.
Machine Learning 7, 45 (1991).
14.
P. Dietz, D. Leigh, in Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on User
interface software and technology. (ACM, 2001), pp. 219-226.
15.
Y. Rogers, S. Lindley, Collaborating around vertical and horizontal large
interactive displays: which way is best? Interacting with Computers 16, 1133
(2004).
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T. W. Malone, Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive
science 5, 333 (1981).
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M. Wesche, T. S. Paribakht, Enhancing Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading:
A Hierarchy of Text-Related Exercise Types. (1994).
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PAPER
The Vari House: Digital Puppeteering for History Education
Authors: J. Jacobson1, D. Sanders2
Affiliations:
1
PublicVR
2
Learning Sites, Inc
*Correspondence to: PublicVR, 333 Lamartine St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Abstract:
The Vari House virtual world is a reconstruction of an ancient Greek farmhouse
excavated fifty years ago in southern Greece. Implemented in Unity3D, the virtual world
features a digital puppet, an avatar representing the teenage son of the farming family that
lives there. We project Vari House onto a large screen, so that the house and puppet are
life-sized to enhance audience engagement. Under the control of a teacher or puppeteer,
the avatar communicates through voice and gesture, moving freely through the virtual
space. He discusses the house itself and daily life, but any relevant topic is accessible. For
depth of conversation, a human puppeteer is superior to any artificial intelligence. This
version of Vari House works well for museum audiences of all ages and fits the ancient
history curriculum mandated in most states for middle school.
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One Sentence Summary:
Life-sized human-controlled digital avatar/puppet of a Greek farmer gives tours of his
house, a powerful technique for educational presentations.
Introduction
The Vari House virtual world is a reconstruction of a Greek farmhouse excavated fifty
years ago, in southern Greece near the shoreline [23-24]. The construction, plan, and
siting of the Vari House follow the teachings of the ancient writers. For example, the
house should be open and face toward the sun, closed off from cold north winds. Also,
perishable-building materials should be placed between imperishable materials for
protection from the weather; thus, in the Vari House, the mud brick walls and wood
ceiling framing and columns are set between a stone foundation and ceramic tile roof.
In 1996, Learning Sites, Inc., developed the original VRML model with linked
curriculum materials as an online educational tool to help teach the use of archaeology to
investigate life in the Hellenic world [35]. In 2012, Learning Sites and PublicVR reimplemented the house using the Unity 3D authoring environment (http://unity3d.com),
and greatly increased the instructional power of the virtual world by the addition of an
ancient Greek farming family. With a moderately fast computer, anyone can explore the
house through a Web browser. Unity also supports immersive presentations, like the one
we describe in this paper. Vari House is not a film or set presentation. It is an interactive
three-dimensional space, now greatly enhanced by the addition, an ancient Greek farming
family, most of whom are represented as automated characters going about their business.
The star of the show is an avatar representing a young teenage farmer (Orestes),
controlled by a live puppeteer. The operator sees the audience through a Webcam and can
move the avatar freely through the virtual space. The avatar addresses the audience
directly, in character, according to a flexible script developed for the particular lesson,
audience, or situation. The avatar puppet can communicate through voice, gesture, and
visual context. He can describe the architectural and archaeological features of his
environment, pointing to individual aspects of the house to address specific curriculum
needs. He can then use the context to talk about ancient daily life, history, religion, or
economics. The action and dialogue can follow a prescribed storyboard or can be
extemporaneous, responding to audience feedback.
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Figure 1. An audience member converses with the digital puppet, Orestes, "in" the
courtyard of the Vari House. His mother is visible in the background.
Optionally, a teacher or second actor can mediate between the audience and the avatar.
The teacher/mediator can explain things that would be awkward for the avatar to say in
character and can also disambiguate spatial references (e.g., whom the avatar is pointing
to). This is important, because we want to present the illusion that the audience and the
avatar occupy a contiguous space that extends from the theater or classroom and into the
virtual house. We are not trying to fool audience members with an optical illusion, but we
do want to make it natural for them to play along with the audio-visual narrative.
The depth and flexibility of conversation of the human-controlled avatar is superior to
that of any artificial intelligence. The show can change every day and develop complex
narratives allowing teachers to develop curricula flexibly. That said, artificially intelligent
characters are low-cost (once developed) and deployable in situations where a human
puppeteer is not available. We do not seek to replace automated characters, but
complement them to round out a better learning experience.
In this article, we will summarize the implications of digital puppeteering in education
and cultural heritage, provide the historical underpinnings of Vari House, describe how
the application works, and explore a sample narrative.
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While the Vari House model is proprietary, an executable will be available free of charge
to the public through the PublicVR and Learning Sites websites. The code is based on
the open-source code produced by the Egyptian Oracle project
(http://publicvr.org/html/pro_oracle.html), which the reader can download to make his or
her own applications.
Digital Puppetry
Today, the game industry has provided a host of online virtual environments, where each
player controls an avatar. Depending on the structure of the game, the avatars interact
with each other, with artificially intelligent “bots,” the virtual environment itself, and the
narrative generally. The most famous example is World of Warcraft, but there are many
other Massively Multiple Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and a host of
acronyms to describe them. When an avatar is visible to other players, the avatar is
literally a digital puppet. The one thing that all puppets have in common is control by one
or more human beings at performance time.
This is profound, because puppetry is an ancient art with highly developed techniques
and technologies for representation, illusion, the evoking of emotion, and the conveying
of information. And yet, most avatars are very primitive puppets indeed, controlled
through a keyboard and mouse and having a very limited range of expression. If we can
convey even a fraction of the expertise in the traditional puppeteering to the game
industry, then we will really have made a contribution.
Jim Henson created the first modern digital puppet, Waldo, in 1988. It interacted directly
with physical puppets. Today, most of the advanced digital puppets are used for film
production, as in the series “Sid the Science Kid” [19]. The Henson Company and other
practitioners have developed a range of innovative control devices, most of them
involving the manipulation of physical models.
Most of the highly realistic or lifelike digital puppets, such as Gollum from the Lord of
the Rings, are driven by live motion capture of an entire human figure. For Gollum, the
actor’s movements were directly translated to the virtual body, which was digitally
captured and merged with the live footage. The effect is expressive and human, perfect
for detailed humanoid figures.
However, it is not the ultimate control interface. The reason why the Henson Company
and others use more abstract control mechanisms is the power of caricature. They want to
deliberately exaggerate or abstract puppet motions to achieve dramatic effect in a way
that would not be efficient or possible with full-body motion capture. Unfortunately, the
great majority of digital puppets, the avatars in games and online virtual environments,
are controlled by keyboard and mouse, which is limiting. One of our long-term goals is to
make better low-cost control schemes accessible to the public.
Puppetry has a close connection with shamanic ritual. The shaman who enters a trance
state of consciousness uses a ritual object, such as a mask or puppet. This results in a
performance of great excitement, public engagement, and reflection of community [33].
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Our goal is to capture some of the excitement and meaning of the original ritual.
Beginning with the Egyptian Oracle, we are attempting to enact and further "extend" the
meaning of ritual for the digital age, exploring the psychical and technical dimensions of
the virtual. The puppet is a transformative vehicle for both the performer and the
community, in this case bridging an imagined ancient past with the real world of today.
Digital Puppets for Educational Theater
A small number of dramatic productions use a sophisticated avatar/puppet for direct
viewing by an audience [32] and her digital puppet performed a shamanistic drama for a
live audience. Andreadis and his colleagues [1] created a live performance by
avatars/puppets in a virtual Pompeii, which was projected onto a large screen for a live
audience. Anstey et al [2] staged a number of dramas with a mixture of virtual and live
actors. As with a traditional play, the audience is “along for the ride.”
Vari House is an interactive performance, where audience members may communicate
directly with the puppet. There are other notable examples. In “Turtle Talk with Crush,”
at Disney theme parks, children see and converse with a virtual digital puppet projected
onto the glass of an aquarium [37]. In a cultural sensitivity training scenario employing
the Gepetto system [28], a trainer-puppeteer controls virtual Arabs with a single
user/audience member. In the TeachMe™ system, used to help middle school children
resist peer pressure, a single puppeteer controls five virtual characters, which interact
directly with the user/audience [43].
People in Virtual Heritage
"Virtual Heritage" is the use of interactive electronic media to recreate culture and
cultural artifacts as they might have been or interpret them as they are today [29][32].
The central element is usually a three-dimensional computer model of a person, place, or
thing, especially an ancient site, building, or event.
Applications that include people fall into four categories:
•
Virtual people are simply there in the environment, going about their
business. They could be simple crowds [38] or participants in a complex
drama [1].
•
The virtual people interact with the user in some meaningful way [8-9].
•
In online worlds such as Second Life users represent themselves as ancient
peoples and interact with each other and artificial people [4].
•
The experience is personal, as the user interacts with a single complex virtual
person [20][30][22][15].
These same categories of virtual people can be implemented in augmented reality, which
is some mixture of the physical world and VR. For example, the LIFEPLUS EU 1st
system [31] describes a proposed and later built hybrid where virtual Romans are visible
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to observers in the physical ruins of Pompeii. The augmented reality also includes
reconstructions of some of the architecture but is primarily focused on the people.
Figure 2. Orestes' family (his mother, father, and younger brother). They don’t do
much, yet, but just their presence provides a scale and social context to the
architecture (from the Learning Sites virtual reality model; © 2011 Learning Sites).
Educational Theater and Cultural Heritage
Dramatic productions for educational purposes have a long and productive history.
Today, many large science museums have small theaters and workstations where
educators give demonstrations and talks, often with audience participation. Children’s
museums stage puppet shows, introducing children to science topics and social issues.
Theater is also educational for student actors in K through 12 schools and higher
education. Since the 1920s, students have learned a wide range of subjects and developed
their personalities by learning stagecraft [41]. Games, improvisation, and role-play foster
communication skills, problem solving, social awareness, and positive self-image.
One of the most widely used forms of theater in education is reenactment of scenes from
an historical time period: “An enactment may be cast in the past, the present, or the
future, but happens in the ‘now of time.’”[42]. This strategy encourages students to
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interact with the material, challenging them to take on the viewpoint of a character. For
example, undergraduate students perform rituals documented in Egyptian religious texts
from the Late or Graeco-Roman periods [13], the Mysteries of Osiris in the Month of
Khoiak[17], and Confirmation of Power in the Egyptian New Year ceremonies [18].
These enactments provide a powerful learning experience for the students and reveal
aspects of the ceremonies not easily evident in the text.
A much less structured approach is the Living Museum [17]. Actors and the
reconstructed or restored historical architecture together simulate a community from the
past, which visitors can explore and with which they can interact. The actors play an
interesting balancing act between staying in character and recognizing the reality of the
modern person talking with them. Examples include Historic Williamsburg
(http://www.history.org), Fort Snelling (http://www.mnhs.org), Plymouth Plantation
(http://www.plimoth.org), and Old Sturbridge Village (http://www.osv.org). The live
actress in PublicVR’s Oracle performance also does this. The public wants to see history
acted out [17].
Artificially Intelligent Agents and Hybrid Systems
Similar work is being done with artificially intelligent human figures that interact with
the audience/user. These are neither puppets nor avatars, but agents or bots. Sophisticated
agents require a great deal of skill and expense to program but have the obvious
advantage of being portable, tireless, and potentially connected to databases not directly
accessible to human readers.
Kenny [26] and Swartout et al. [36] describe their own cultural sensitivity trainer, an AIdriven direct competitor to the puppeteer system, Gepetto, described in Mapes [28]. The
Intelligent Virtual Environments group at Teesside University developed another
sophisticated AI system. In their “Madam Bovary” simulation, the user takes the role of a
major character, the foil for the protagonist [7]. Each of these systems is intended for a
single user in a CAVE-like [12] display.
Good, AI-driven interactive storytelling can be developed without extreme cost. For
example, Ansty and Pape [2] have also staged interactive psychodramas that respond to
the emotional state of the user. Ryu [33] developed a shadow puppet that responds
directly to the user. In both systems, the programming for the artificial intelligence is
relatively simple, but the artistic and narrative design makes it a powerful experience.
Importantly, the TeachME™ system is a hybrid [43].
When the puppeteer is not directly controlling an avatar, it acts according to a set of preprogrammed rules and behaviors. In this way, all five avatars are active in a way
throughout the scenario. Many adventure games allow a single user to control a group of
characters, using a similar strategy (e.g., Everquest).
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The Vari House Project
Project History
In the mid-1990s, Learning Sites, Inc., began to pursue the concept (new at the time) of
using online virtual reality environments to change the way history is taught in schools.
There clearly were exciting possibilities of presenting students with immersive
visualizations of places, peoples, and events of the past, along with linked information,
lessons, and problem-solving tasks.
By 1998, Learning Sites had designed and released the Ancient Greece: Town & Country
educational package, which combined and contrasted their virtual reality models of the
Vari House and the House of Many Colors (from Olynthus; both Hellenistic in date). The
package guides the student-reader through a game-like activity, where they are in the role
of an archaeologist. Armed with questions they need to answer, students gathered some
of the answers by directly examining the virtual worlds. They could also learn from the
linked text, which had information on relevant curriculum-focused topics, such as history,
culture, and geography that helped them interpret the significance of their discoveries
[35].
In 2012, the authors translated the Vari house model into Unity, a game development
software platform that has become popular among archaeologists and other academics
(http://unity3d.com). Then, we added automated models of the family members going
about their business, and the digital puppet representing their teenaged son. The
programming for the puppet is based on the open source code for the Egyptian Oracle
project [21] accessible from http://publicvr.org/html/pro_oracle.html. (Follow the link
that says “Application and Source Code”).
Eventually we will make this version accessible from the web, as well. But our current
focus is on educational theater, as we described in this article.
The Building Itself
The Vari House is located in southeastern Greece, about 4km (2.5 miles) from the coast
of the Aegean Sea along a rocky spur of the southernmost foothills of the Hymettus
Mountain range. The site is about 18km (11 miles) southeast of Athens; and about 2km
(1.2 miles) from the ancient town of Vari. The site was excavated in the summer of 1966
by British archaeologists [23-24], whose final report is the basis for our reconstruction.
The basic structure as excavated is a rectangle with external dimensions of 13.7 – 13.85
m x 17.6 – 17.7 m (about 45’ x 58’).
The house is set on a stone terrace, which projects 0.5m along the south side. There are
four rooms arrayed across the back of the house, a large central open courtyard, and two
additional spaces in the front corners of the building. One is a tower, and the other is an
extension of the side workspace. Each room has only one doorway, and that doorway
opens only into the central courtyard; the building itself appears to have had only one
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entrance facing south. Thus, the whole house has a southern orientation, which was
common for the period. No evidence was found for any other buildings in the immediate
vicinity. Based on the surviving bits of pottery and a few coins found, the small amount
of wear on the thresholds, and the lack of long-term renovations, the house seems to been
occupied only for a short time from the second half 4th-century to the early half of the
third century BCE.
Figure 3. Vari House, aerial view (from the Learning Sites virtual reality model; ©
2010 Learning Sites).
A verandah roof that shades the Vari House faces toward the south, and the layout of
rooms along the north side. This layout follows closely what ancient Greek and Roman
writers tell us about the ideal setting for a dwelling: it should be open and face toward the
sun, it should be closed off from cold north winds, and it should capture the heat and light
of the sun appropriately for the seasons.
Further, the distribution of materials follows the teachings of the ancient writers: place
perishable building materials (in the Vari House, the mud brick of the walls and wood
ceiling framing and columns) between imperishable materials (in the Vari House,
between a stone foundation and ceramic tile roof) to protect the perishable materials from
the weather [23-24]. The walls between the rooms at the back of the house are thin since
they only support their own weight. The corner room's walls are so thick that
archaeologists believe they supported a two-story tower.
Evidence of Beekeeping
There is no evidence of Vari House being a farm, in the traditional sense, or that special
work was carried out at the house. There are no livestock or other purpose outbuildings.
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However, many clay vessels were found around the site, with lids and extension rings
consistent with bee skeps of the time. They are specially designed and constructed to
encourage honeybees to build their honeycombs inside and to allow people to remove the
combs and retrieve the honey easily. Wall paintings and carvings at ancient Egyptian
sites show very similar vessels for beekeeping and show the process of removing the
honeycombs for their honey.
Researchers found microscopic traces of honey inside some potsherds through chemical
analysis [14]. All this evidence demonstrates that this was a beekeeper’s house, and that
honey was harvested here on a large scale [11]. Honey was in ancient Greece, as it still is
today, a favorite food topping, ingredient, and dessert [11].
Aristotle mentioned that keeping bees was part of farming activities. Other ancient
writers commented that the best honey in the Greek world came from the Hymettus
Mountain range, the location of the Vari House [25].
Perception, Interaction, and Hardware
Vari House is projected life-sized onto a screen or a blank wall in a museum, school
theater, or classroom. This effectively extends physical space into the virtual world of the
Greek farmhouse, giving the audience greater empathy for the material and a more direct
interface with the virtual world. Under the control of a teacher or professional puppeteer,
the avatar addresses the audience, communicating through voice and gesture.
Optionally, a teacher or second actor can assist communication between the audience and
the avatar. She can disambiguate spatial references, such as when the avatar indicates a
member of the audience, by pointing or looking. Another solution would be to use a
stereographic (3D) projector, which greatly enhances the illusion of the contiguous
virtual space. Today, low-cost stereographic projectors are readily available, although
members of the audience will have to wear shutter glasses, expensive if the audience is
more than a few people. Passive stereo projectors, the kind used in 3D movies, require
only low-cost plastic foil glasses, but the projector is much more expensive.
We refer to the Vari House as three-dimensional, but that is really a construction in the
cooperating participants’ minds. The narrative and the graphics help their imagination,
and the better the 3D cues are, the easier it is. The better your hardware and supporting
software is, the better the visual cues can be. The demonstration that we describe here
uses low-cost hardware, just a laptop, digital projector, and commodity sound system. We
wish to present methods that are accessible to everyone.
The operator sees the audience through a Webcam, which he can reorient by remote
control. The Webcam image is streamed to a computer monitor, while a real-time
duplicate of the audience view appears on a second computer monitor. He controls the
viewpoint using the keyboard and mouse and controls the puppet with an Xbox 360
controller. Some of the controls are continuous, such as controlling the puppet’s head
with a POV (a miniature joystick used with one finger). Others are discrete gestures,
which can be blended together, emphasized, or minimized. We will post a more detailed
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description along with the executable when it is ready. Until then, the documentation for
the Egyptian Oracle priest, which is fairly similar, is available online
(http://publicvr.org/html/pro_oracle.html).
The first time we implemented the puppet for Vari House, we reused the gestures for
Egyptian Priest, because they came with the open source code. The movements worked
well enough, but we had to make changes, and we desire more. Many of the priest’s
gestures are appropriate for an imperious official, but not quite right for our young tour
guide. As with traditional puppetry, digital puppets’ form and movements are crafted to
support the narrative.
We used a surround-sound system for our first demonstration of the Vari House, the same
one described by Nambiar [44]. The house has period background music, which the
audience hears while they are “in” the courtyard. When the audience viewpoint is
outside, they hear wind and birds, bees near the hives, and so on. The puppeteer speaks
into a microphone so his voice comes through the surround sound system. Optionally, the
voice of the mediator can also be fed through the sound system, which guarantees that
she will be heard and makes her more similar to the avatar.
Navigation
We employed three basic navigation modes in our demonstration to show their relative
advantages:
Jump Cut: The operator presses a key on a keyboard, which instantly moves the avatar
to a specific location facing the virtual world. It also moves the audience viewpoint to a
nearby point, facing the avatar. “Jump cuts” is a term from film, where the location and
orientation of the view changes suddenly, but there is always some narrative connection
between the two points of view. Most audiences have become used to them from a
lifetime of movies and television.
Figure 4 shows a map of the Vari house with six positions. For each one, the camera
represents the location of the audience view, and the direction of the camera lens
indicates the direction of that view. The overhead schematic of the human figure shows
the location of the puppet, facing the direction the human figure is pointing. Changing the
narrative requires minor changes in the code to accommodate new jump points, although
a little creative coding could make defining jump points easy for an operator. At the first
four locations, the puppet stands still and converses with the audience. Position five is the
starting point for free walk, fixed camera mode, while position six is the starting point for
intelligent following.
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Figure 4. Jump Cut locations (excavator’s schematic plan view of the Vari House; final
image © 2012 Learning Sites).
Free Walk, Fixed Camera: Initially, the puppet jumps to position five, and the camera
is placed much further away than with the jump cuts, facing back toward the house. The
puppeteer can then walk the avatar across the screen, or back-and-forth, pointing at and
describing features or objects. As with the jump cuts, changing the narrative may require
changing the initial location of the puppet and the camera. The puppeteer uses the arrow
or w, a, s, and d keys on the keyboard to move the avatar, using the venerable golf cart
navigation scheme: up arrow is forward, down arrow is backward, left arrow rotates him
left, right arrow rotates him right.
Intelligent Following: This navigation mode will be familiar to people who have played
avatar-based computer games, an old idea that works well. The avatar walks, the camera
stays behind him, attempting to maintain a set distance, while avoiding objects. The
puppeteer uses the arrow keys to navigate the puppet, just as with the free-walk mode.
Additionally, the puppeteer can use the mouse to rotate the view around the puppet at any
time. The camera is always looking toward the puppet, but rotating the camera enough
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will cause it to face him. The puppeteer uses this maneuver when he needs to stop the
avatar walking and have the avatar dialogue with the audience.
Intelligent following generally works, and could theoretically accommodate any
narrative. Many of the important videogames have players using it to control their
personal avatars. However, it has to be skillfully handled in life-size theater to look good.
For example, the act of swinging the camera around to the front of the avatar takes time
in our current implementation. We will need to experiment with it some more.
Sample Narrative
This is a short, flexible narrative that we used in a recent demonstration. It does not
define a fixed dialogue. Instead the storyboard presents material that the actor/puppeteer
works with in his conversation with the audience. Much more complex and lengthy
narratives are possible with little or no extra programming.
The narrative comes in three phases, each with a different navigation mode (defined
above):
I.
Dialogue in Jump-Cut Mode
II.
Dialogue in Free Walk, Fixed Camera Mode
III.
Dialogue in Intelligent Following Mode
Following is an overview of each of the three narrative phases.
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I. Dialogue in Jump-Cut Mode
Introduction
Figure 5. Screen shot from the Vari House virtual world showing the initial
position of the avatar (© 2013 PublicVR and Learning Sites).
•
camera position -- not too far away, looking at the avatar with some courtyard in view.
•
avatar position looking at the audience (at the camera; figure 5 and #1 in figure 4).
•
avatar actions -- gesture to the audience and then around the interior of the house as he talks
•
Avatar talking -- "Yah-sue....Hello. My name is Orestes; welcome to my farmhouse. What do you
think we farm here?” <<pointing to and speaking directly to someone in the audience, identified
the person by an item of clothing or some other feature>> “You in the blue shirt! Do you have an
idea? We keep bees, and we farm honey. That's all we do, and we here on the slopes of the
Hymettus Mountains produce the best honey in all of Greece. My mom's on her way to Vari
town to buy food, and my father is out tending to the bees. My kid brother is outside mending
pots, so if you follow me, I'll tell you more about our life." <<avatar and camera jump to position
2>>
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House Construction & Function
Figure 6. Screen shot from the Vari House virtual world showing position two of the
avatar (© 2013 PublicVR and Learning Sites).
•
camera position -- not too far away, looking at the avatar and across the courtyard
•
avatar position -- looking at the audience (at the camera; figure 6 and #2 in figure 4)
•
avatar actions -- points to various parts of the house as they are described
•
Avatar talking -- "Ours is a simple house. We built it ourselves from local materials. Rocks, like
for the foundation, the courtyard paving stones, and the bases for the posts, were all found out
along the hillside. We made the sun-dried mud brick for the walls and cut trees to make the posts,
the ceiling beams, and the doors. The rooms are naturally cooled by the breezes coming down the
hill behind the house and natural light from this central courtyard spreads everywhere to help us
work." <<avatar and camera jump to position 3>>
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Dining Room
Figure 7. Screen shot from the Vari House virtual world showing position three of
the avatar (© 2013 PublicVR and Learning Sites).
•
Camera position -- in the doorway to see both the avatar and plenty of the room.
•
Avatar position -- looking at the audience (at the camera; figure 7 and #3 in figure 4)
•
Avatar actions -- gestures and points to items there, as described
•
Avatar talking -- "This is our Andron (dining room to you),” <<avatar points out features and
gestures to other rooms>> “where we lie down on these couches to eat and use the side tables for
our dishes. We keep our dried food in jars; other food is prepared fresh each day or smoked and
salted for later use. Next door is where we sleep...that is, if we aren't enjoying the evening out
there in the courtyard. We go to bed when it gets dark and get up for work at first light. That
central courtyard provides access to all the other rooms of the house. It's also our main workspace
and where some of the small animals we keep are housed overnight. Over on the side, we have a
workplace for repairing the beehives and other stuff. Over in one corner is our kitchen. Now,
unlike where most of you live, we don't have any running water, so we take turns fetching fresh
water from the streams in the valley nearby.” <<avatar points to someone in the audience, and
mentions something they are wearing or where they are sitting>> “You get to carry the next batch
of water in amphora. As for a bathroom; well, we don't have that either, but there are plenty of
trees in the woods outside. We don't even have heat in the house except for the small fire here in
the kitchen." <<avatar and camera jump to position 4>>
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Look Outside Open Front Door
Figure 8. Screen shot from the Vari House virtual world showing position four
of the avatar (© 2013 PublicVR and Learning Sites).
•
Camera position -- a bit farther away to see both the avatar and a view out the front door
•
Avatar position -- facing the audience beside one door leaf (figure 8 and #4 in figure 4)
•
Avatar actions -- points to items there, as described
•
Avatar talking -- "I think we picked an ideal location for our house. Besides having the breezes
from the hillside, we are also sheltered from winter storms--our house has its back to the north
winds, just as Aristotle and Xenophon taught us. And we have a great view” <<look outside>>
“all the way down to the coast; that's where my mom needs to go to buy supplies--it's about an
hour's walk. Out there, in front of the house, is where we keep the active bee skeps (that's what
we call the hives). Hey, Dad, someone to see you....Oh, well, he must still be busy tending to the
honey collection. Do you want to go outside?" <<avatar turns to move outside; camera jumps to
position 5>>
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II. Dialogue in Free Walk, Fixed Camera Mode
Figure 9. Screen shot from the Vari House virtual world showing position five of
the avatar (© 2013 PublicVR and Learning Sites).
•
Camera position – facing the house, near the low stone wall with a view of the entire house.
•
Avatar position -- facing away from the audience (figure 9 and #5 in figure 4).
•
Avatar actions -- gestures to various house parts as he walks from the right side to the left.
•
Avatar talking text -- "Here we are outside; I'm under our shaded porch. We like to sit out here
and admire our view. Outside you can see the same local construction materials I mentioned
before. And over there on the corner of the house is our tower, where we have our locked
storeroom and lookout. We keep our valuables safe there and can use the tower to watch for
dangers and hide if need be, not that we've ever needed it. Up the hill about half an hour behind
the house is a cave of Pan, where he lives and where those of us who live in this area, plus many
visitors, go to offer him food and drink so that he continues to protect our bees and the flocks of
other farmers.”
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III. Dialogue in Intelligent Following Mode
Figure 10. Screen shot from the Vari House virtual world showing position six
of the avatar (© 2013 PublicVR and Learning Sites).
•
Camera position – near the beehives
•
See the starting position 6 in Figure 4, near the beehives.
•
Avatar actions --gestures to and points to skeps as features are described
•
Avatar talking text -- "Here are some of our bee skeps or bee hive containers. The bees won't hurt
you, really. Don't mind my dad as he makes sure the containers are working properly. Each skep
is made of clay; we make them right here (well, actually me and my brother make them). Each
skep has a ceramic lid that's tied to the main skep body by cords wrapped around a forked stick
and attached to grooves on the side of the skep. The stick's forked end surrounds a notch in the lid
(can you see it?) that acts as a doorway for bees coming in and going out of their hives. The
inside walls of the skep body are roughened so the honeycombs can more easily attach
themselves. We sometimes remove the lids to check on progress inside; that's probably what my
father is doing now. We have dozens of bee skeps scattered across the grounds. Hey, thanks for
letting me talk to you about my home. I hope you enjoyed learning about us."
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Figure 11. Screen shot from the Vari House virtual world showing another view of
position six of the avatar (© 2013 PublicVR and Learning Sites).
Conclusion
Applications like Vari House are relatively rare, but rooted in several converging trends:
•
Online virtual worlds with their human-controlled avatars (puppets).
•
Game technology and game-like narrative structures for education.
•
Immersive displays for a variety of uses.
•
Home theater.
Learning through constructive play is powerful, especially when history can be
personified in this way. History itself is terribly important, but students gain even more
from an interactive virtual worlds experience. Experiences like this show them how to
have empathy with other cultures.
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Software and animation for Vari House can always be improved, but it is now sufficient
for deployment in K-12 schools and in museums. The next stage, now, is to develop the
curricula and supporting materials, but that depends on the context. We are currently
seeking partners interested in working with schools or museums and that wish to work
with us to develop Vari House and similar projects, further.
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Acknowledgements
Donald Sanders, Ph.D. is an archaeologist, architect, and architectural historian, who
have been developing virtual worlds for cultural heritage for over 20 years. As the
principal investigator of the Vari House project, he sets all priorities and determines
requirements. He also directly supervised the artwork for Vari House itself.
Jeffrey Jacobson, Ph.D., is an educational researcher specializing in visually immersive
virtual reality for education. He developed the interaction strategy for the Vari House,
which is based on the Egyptian oracle, also his work. He supervised the development of
the digital puppet.
Geoff Kornfeld did all of the artwork for Vari House itself and for the farm family
members, except for the avatar.
Tatania Roykova created Orestes, the avatar/puppet, modeling his body and look around
the bones of the priest from the Egyptian Oracle project. She also improved the
animations, which were also carried over from the Oracle project.
Jonathan Hawkins composed and recorded all the music and sound effects.
Cody Johnson programmed the waypoints and the freewalk and greatly refined the
intelligent following. He fixed many bugs and generally upgraded Vari House to a
professional-level application.
Siddhesh Pandit imported and refined the new animations and models and programmed
the first version of the intelligent following.
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OUTLIER
Human Identity in the New Digital Age: The Distributed Self and the
Identity Mapping Project
Authors: Richard L. Gilbert, PhD 1,2,3
Affiliations:
1
Professor of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles and Director of
The P.R.O.S.E. (Psychological Research on Synthetic Environments) Project.
2
Co-Chair, The Psychology of Immersive Environments Technology Working Group
(PIE.TWG), Immersive Education Initiative.
3
Chair, Western USA Chapter of Immersive Education (iED West)
* Correspondence to: richard.gilbert@lmu.edu.
Abstract:
The advent of cloud computing and the proliferation of digital platforms, including
immersive digital platforms, has begun to reshape human identity (defined as a person’s
conception and expression of his or her individuality). Just as modernist conceptions of
the self as stable, unique, and internal (“The Psychological Self”) were displaced by postmodern conceptions of identity as fragmented and constantly shifting (“The Multiple
Self”), the post-millennial rise of a multi-platform and 3D digital environment is ushering
in a new stage of identity called “The Distributed Self.” In this conception, consciousness
and aspects of the self are increasingly externalized and distributed into both 2D and 3D
digital personas (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, 3D virtual worlds) reflecting any number or
combination of now malleable traits of race, gender, age, style, body type, personality,
and physical health. Within this new model, the source of identity remains internal and
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embodied, but the expression or enactment of this consciousness becomes increasingly
external, disembodied, and distributed on demand. In this way, the operation of The
Distributed Self is analogous to that of “cloud computing,” where digital resources are
stored in the Internet (analogous to our central consciousness) and distributed on demand
to multiple digital platforms and devices (similar to the distribution of multiple personas
across a range of 2D and 3D environments). As multiple 2D and 3D digital platforms
continue to proliferate, creating and coordinating a diverse identity system involving a
physical self and multiple online identities across a variety of 2D and 3D virtual
platforms will increasingly become a normative process in human development and
personality. The newly formed Identity Mapping Project at Loyola Marymount
University has begun to gather descriptive data on global patterns of distributed identity.
One Sentence Summary: This work considers how the advent of cloud computing and
the proliferation of digital platforms, including immersive digital platforms, is changing
the nature of human identity.
Introduction
The history of human identity (defined as a person’s conception and expression of his or
her individuality) is typically divided by psychologists, intellectual historians, and
philosophers of mind into three stages: The “Pre-Modern Stage,” the “Modern Stage,”
and the “Post-Modern Stage.” Each stage is closely tied to revolutionary developments in
culture and technology.
After reviewing these stages, and their associated cultural and technological
context, the current work proposes that the rise of 3D virtual worlds and multiple 2D
digital platforms, along with the development of cloud computing, is ushering in a 4th
form of human identity called “The Distributed Self.” Once again, our conception and
experience of the self is undergoing radical change.
Conceptions of Human Identity: A Brief History
During the Pre-Modern Stage, a person’s identity (The Social Self) was based
upon his or her roles and standing in the social order rather than on a unique organization
of behavior and internal experience. In this era, a person was a peasant, merchant, landed
gentry, or a lord; he was a farmer, a blacksmith, a soldier, or a knight – not merely
someone who happened to occupy one of these occupations and social statuses.
Moreover, this defined place in the structuralized whole was fixed and unquestioned.
As depicted in Figure 1, the socially embedded self is described, not by a unique
and distinctive pattern of feelings and thoughts, but by a set of status identifiers that
reflect the person’s roles or position within the social order including his or her birth
order, child or parental status, generational group, and function or service within the
community.
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Figure 1. The Pre-Modern Social Self
The Pre-Modern conception of identity as external (outside of the individual) and
contextual (rooted in the individual’s place in the social order) gave way to a “Modernist”
view of identity as personal, unique, and internal (The Psychological Self) following
major historical developments that occurred in the 17th through 19th centuries. These
included the Enlightenment (with its emphasis on internal processes of reason and
cognition) and the rise of Industrial Capitalism (with its emphasis on private property,
individual rights, and its fluid social and occupational system that enabled greater
personal change relative to the old feudal order).
In the modernist conception, identity is viewed to be:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
internally located
unique
divided between conscious and unconscious awareness
largely continuous but subject to change
consistent with developmental experience
unitary or singular in its organization
physically embodied
The foundational logic of modernist conceptions of psychological identity is
closely aligned with the natural science fields of geology and archeology. An
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individual’s developmental experiences are presumed to leave unconscious byproducts
(however they are conceived) in the interior of the person, analogous to fossils deposited
within layers of sedimentary rock. Later on, through the painstaking work of
psychotherapy, it is assumed that these hidden elements can be brought to light and the
history and organization of the personality can be objectively described, much in the way
an archeologist works to unearth fossils in order to reconstruct the history and
development of a physical region. Perhaps, owing to this analogy, Freud, the author of
the original modernist conception of human identity, considered himself to be an
archeologist of the mind.
This close relationship between developments in geology and archeology and
modernist conceptions of a stratified mind containing imprints of the past raises a point
that is relevant to all perspectives on human identity: Psychological conceptions of the
self are strongly influenced by, and often directly modeled from, prevailing perspectives
in the natural sciences and the operation of dominant forms of technology. Figure 2
below depicts the modernist conception of human identity.
Figure 2. The Psychological Self of Modernity
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The classic theories of personality all reflect these modernist assumptions
regarding the nature of identity and the self. Each assumes that developmental
experiences interact with inborn tendencies to create a relatively stable internal
organization that is unique to the individual and subject to accurate description. Where
they differ is in their specification of the nature and timing of the formative
developmental experiences and especially the type of internal byproduct that is the
psychological legacy of these experiences.
For example, Freud believed that the primary internal consequence of external
experience was a set of resolutions of conflicts between biologically-based longings and
the demands of culture (e.g. the Oedipal-Electra conflict) [1], whereas Erikson focused
on unconscious ratios of competing attitudes about the self and the world (e.g., Trust vs.
Mistrust; Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, etc.) [2], and theorists working within Object
Relations and Self-Psychology [3, 4, 5] emphasized the formation of internal models of
self, other, and “self-in-relation-to-other,” as the essential byproducts of development.
Outside of the psychodynamic tradition, the more empirically oriented models of trait
theory [6, 7] and cognitive social learning theory [8] proposed that the primary internal
consequences of social experience involved either a collection of stable psychological
attributes or traits, cognitive schema about the self and the world, or entrenched patterns
of behavior.
In the latter half of the 20th century dramatic advances in transportation and
telecommunications turned the world into a global village where individuals were
constantly exposed to new and different perspectives, narratives, styles, and
psychological realities. The sheer volume and diversity of these voices and perspectives
challenged the very notion of objective truth. How could one believe in the truth of any
position, including propositions regarding human identity, when a range of counterpositions was constantly available?
In this broad context of intellectual doubt and uncertainty, modernist conceptions
of an essential, singular, objectively describable self came under attack by post-modern
theorists who argued that there is no stable, consistent, coherent individual identity [9,
10]. Instead they maintained that human identity is fragmented, multiple, and constantly
shifting (The Multiple Self), no less than the chaotic and contradictory mix of voices that
reverberate through the external world. In essence the multiple self represents a
qualitative shift in how human identity is viewed because unlike prior conceptions it does
not assume the existence of any structure that constrains the range of self-expression –
either an external structure like the fixed social order of pre-modernity, or an internal,
psychological structure at the heart of modern conceptions of personality.
Just as modernist conceptions of the self are closely aligned with the fields of
geology and archeology, the post-modern, multiple self can be understood with reference
to developments in the area of computer science [11]. Like a windowed computer
operating system that serves as the executive controller for many functionally different
applications (only one of which is active and displayed on the screen at any time, while
many others are available but in an inactive or latent position), the self is conceived as an
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entity capable of “maximizing” or “minimizing” multiple aspects of identity according to
personal desires and the demands of a particular context without regard to whether they
form a consistent, coherent, structure. Figure 3 depicts the Multiple Self as an operating
system managing a shifting collection of active and waiting processes.
Figure 3. The Post-Modern Multiple Self
Human Identity in the New Digital Age: The Rise of the Distributed Self
The Distributed Self: An Overview
The rise of 3D virtual worlds and the introduction of avatar-mediated forms of
expression and interaction has the potential to once again reshape humanity’s conception
and experience of the self and usher in a fourth stage of identity, one which can be termed
“The Distributed Self” [12]. In this conception, consciousness and aspects of the self will
be increasingly externalized and distributed into 3-dimensional digital forms (i.e. avatars)
reflecting any number of combinations of age, gender, body type, race, ethnicity, style,
personality, and physical health.
Several studies have shown, for instance, that participants in 3D virtual
environments such as Second Life often create avatars that, relative to their physical self,
are younger, have a better body or physical appearance, and are ascribed a more positive
or idealized personality [12, 13, 14]. Less frequently, they choose avatars with a different
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gender, ethnicity, or skin color [15, 16]. Moreover, it is estimated that among the overall
user base of Second Life, 18% have a single “alt” (i.e. a secondary or alternative avatar)
in addition to their primary avatar; 32% operate two or more alts; and that in
approximately 70% of these cases one function of the alt or alts is to experiment with
different aspects of identity or personality [12].
Taken as a whole these data indicate that about a half of active users of Second
Life are coordinating a multiple personality system consisting of a physical self plus two
virtual identities (a primary avatar and one alt) and about a third are coordinating an
identity system involving 4 or more components (a physical self and three or more virtual
identities). As depicted in Figure 4, when the allocation of consciousness to nonimmersive digital forms such as email, Facebook, Twitter, or Linked In is added to the
physical and 3D virtual components of the overall identity system, the structure of the
self becomes more like an organizational flowchart rather than the singular entity in
modernist conceptions, or the diverse, but device constrained, model of post-modernism.
Figure 4. The Distributed Self
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Whereas the windowed operating system serves as the technological analog to the
post-modern conception of The Multiple Self, the rise of “cloud computing” (i.e., the
virtualization of computational resources on the Internet so that they can be allocated,
replicated, or distributed on demand across multiple platforms and devices) forms the
technical basis for the new, distributed conception of identity and self. Within this new
model, the source of consciousness remains internal and embodied (in the “cloud” of
consciousness), but the expression or enactment of this consciousness becomes
increasingly external, disembodied, and distributed on demand to multiple digital forms.
Reflecting on this trend and growth projections for 3D virtual worlds, Gilbert, Foss, &
Murphy [12 p. 232] note:
“As 3D virtual worlds and the global population of avatars continue to grow,
creating and coordinating a system composed of a physical self and a diverse set
of online identities will increasingly become a normative process in human
development. Individuals will manage their multiple personality orders in a
manner akin to a choreographer managing a company of dancers or a conductor
leading an orchestra and the operation of personality
will take on a quality of performance art.” [12].
Next Steps: The Identity Mapping Project (IMP) and Acquiring Descriptive Data
Having set forth the concept of The Distributed Self, the next step will be to
acquire descriptive data through a process that has been named the “Identity Mapping
Project.” The project will involve the additional collaboration of LMU Computer Science
professors John Dionisio and Philip Dorin, Currently the web domain
“mapmyidentity.com” has been secured and the process of building an online survey to
gather data about participant’s 1) Physical Self (e.g. such as their age, sex, education, and
country of residence) and 2) their presence in each of 6 digital domains: Email, Blogs,
On-Line Forums, Social Networks, Digital Gaming, and 3D Virtual Worlds.
After participants complete the survey, a graphical representation of his or
her current identity will automatically be generated that can be downloaded for free. The
hope and intention of the IMP is to gather a large number of identity maps from a global
pool of participants in order to gain a better understanding of how human consciousness
is being distributed and coordinated across multiple digital platforms.
References:
1. Freud, S. (1962). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, trans. James Strachey.
New York: Basic Books.
2. Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and Society. New York: Norton. Revised paperback
edition, 1963.
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3. Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 52 (4), 664-678.
4. Mahler, M., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human
infant: Symbiosis and individuation. New York: Basic Books.
5. Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of the self. New York: International Universities
Press.
6. Allport, G. (1961). Pattern and Growth in Personality. (1961). Harcourt College
Publishing.
7. Eysenck, H. (1991). Dimensions of personality: 16: 5 or 3? Criteria for a taxonomic
paradigm. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 773–790.
8. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive
theory. Prentice-Hall series in social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, Inc.
9. Gergen, K. (1991). The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life.
10. Lifton, R. (1993). The Protean Self: Human resilience in an age of fragmentation.
11. Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York:
Touchstone Press.
12. Gilbert, R., Foss, J., & Murphy, N. (2011). Multiple Personality Order: Physical and
personality characteristics of the self, primary avatar, and alt. In A. Peachey & M.Childs,
Eds., Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Online Virtual
Worlds. London: Springer Publishing.
13. Au, W. J. (2007, April 30). Surveying Second Life [Web log message]. Retrieved
from http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/04/second_life_dem.html
14. Bessiere, K., Seay, A.F., & Kiesler, S. (2007). The ideal self: Identity exploration in
World of Warcraft. Cyberpsychology and Behaviour, 10, 530-535.
15. Wallace, P., & Marryott, J. (2009). The impact of avatar self-representation on
collaboration in virtual worlds. Innovate, 5.
16. Ducheneaut, N., Wen, M., Yee, N., & Wadley, G. (2009). Body and mind: A study of
avatar personalization in three virtual worlds. CHI, April, 4-9.
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OUTLIER
iAchieve, Empowering Students through Interactive Educational Data
Exploration
Authors: Josephine Tsay1, Zifeng Tian1, Ningyu Mao1, Jennifer Sheu1,
Weichuan Tian1, Mohit Sadhu1, Yang Shi1
Affiliations:
1
Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center.
*Correspondence to: josephinetsay@cmu.edu, ztian@cmu.edu, nmao@cmu.edu,
jennifersheu@cmu.edu, weichuat@andrew.cmu.edu, mohitmax@cmu.edu,
yangshi@andrew.cmu.edu
Abstract:
iAchieve is an iPad application developed for students to be able to access their own
educational data, expressed through a tree metaphor. Students can browse their own
educational data by subject and by grade. The student's information is pulled from a data
server containing progress in subjects covered by the United States’ Common Core State
Standards. This information is customized per student and includes test scores, as well as
game scores. By exposing students to their own educational data, we empower them to
take control of their own education. Our application is not meant to be stand-alone; it
aims to facilitate a conversation between student and parent and/or educator about current
educational testing practices and focus, as related to each individual student. Instead of
the school system holding the information or report card, instead it sits with the student
throughout their learning development K-12.
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One Sentence Summary: iAchieve empowers students to take control of their own
educational data through an iPad application that is plugged into scores or other learning
data generated by the individual student and/or the student’s academic record and
activities; data is visually expressed by subject, as well as grade level, through an
interactive tree metaphor.
Introduction
By exposing students to their own educational data, iAchieve empowers students to take
control of their own educational progress. This information, traditionally expressed in the
form of a report card or permanent record, is no longer withheld from the student, and
instead follows the student through his or her own educational journey.
In support of formative assessment in K-12 United States education, iAchieve enhances
progress towards a student’s learning goal by facilitating student record-keeping [1].
Educational institutes, parental and educational figures, as well as students themselves,
can input data into the iAchieve application to track educational progress towards a
desired learning output. The goal is to move away from expressing isolated test scores the
way current student dashboards and report cards represent educational data. Instead of
presenting data in the form of pure numbers and missed marks, instead the application
engages students through visuals by bridging the gap between the functional and aesthetic
aspects of data visualization. Students interact with the educational data they have
generated over time towards an understanding or mastery of a particular subject or
subjects.
The iAchieve iPad application allows for student and parental direct access and control of
the student’s educational data. Instead of the information sitting on the school’s servers,
through the flexibility of the data structure, a student’s data is pulled, stored, and
expressed locally on the student’s device. By presenting data through an interactive
visual scene, iAchieve helps shorten the feedback loop between a student and his or her
own educational mastery.
To achieve this proof of concept, the application currently targets the middle school
student demographic, ages 11-3, or 6th to 8th grade. The application uses the Common
Core State Standards [2] and educational game data to create three student scenarios: low,
general, and high academic achievers.
Development time for this iPad application takes 4 months, or 16 weeks, from conception
to current state. Two months’ dedication to the tree design ensures the clarity of the
visualization for our initial target of 6-8th grade students.
Scope
The iPad application, developed with xCode, the cocos2d engine, and the Objective-C
programming language, uses customized individual student data to produce varied
visualizations and interactions associated with a tree metaphor, based on the following
representations:
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•
Each Tree represents a specific subject, and contains educational data for that
subject for grades 6-8 in its current state.
•
The bird’s eye view of the data consists of multiple trees with different subjects.
When the student clicks on the bird icon, it reveals a dashboard view, or whole
world view, of tree subjects and grade levels representing the capacity of the
application to contain 12 grades and ‘n’ subjects.
•
Branches represent sub-subjects. For instance, if Math is a subject tree, then
Geometry is a branch.
•
Flowers on the trees represent progress for specific subjects. Flowers in this case
refer to objects that appear on a tree based on educational data. In a scores-driven
scenario, a colored flower represents scores of over 85%.
•
The style is based on a 2.5 D [3] style, with layers to represent the current, or
most recent, data in the foreground. Using the swipe gesture, students navigate
through different rows of trees associated to another grade level.
The tree can support different types of data and will look different accordingly. For
example, an English tree with game data only, as compared to an English tree with school
data only, as juxtaposed with an English tree with game and school data, all look
different.
A. Tree Logic
Each subject tree procedurally generates based on specific data sets generated by
the student, as seen in Figures 1-2. Pieces of the tree are provided through
graphical sprite sheets [4]. The tree grammar follows consistent rules involving
tree trunks, splits, branches, and canopies [5].
Figure 1. First generation tree logic based on different scores.
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Figure 2. First generation tree logic based on different sprite sheets.
A specific graphic style enhances the visualization from the simple first
generation tree logic. Figure 3 shows how the procedurally generated graphical
tree utilizes data input in its formation.
Figure 3. Tree canopy and branch length indicates how long it took to complete a
particular sub-subject. Tree trunk indicates current month in a 12-month school year.
B. Tree as Visual Representations
A key lesson in the development of a tree data visualization centers on whether
this type of data can be a truly interactive experience, with no shiny buttons
required, with every part of the tree used to represent information [6].
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Figure 4 presents a first attempt at tree data visualization through a cherry
blossom, where the branches indicate a sub-subject, and additional branches from
the split are sections of that particular sub-subject. Flowers, when tapped, display
information related to a student’s progress or mastery in a specific sub-subject
(for example, a competency score, within the context of this learning branch). The
entire tree is interactive and contains educational data.
Figure 4. First generation tree visualization based on tree logic.
The next iteration simplifies the interaction and moves from a literal tree
representation to a figurative one. Rather than simply translating data, the subject
tree encapsulates a student’s academic history at a moment in time. To
accomplish this, references to key inspirations timeline data visualizations, such
as the Tree View of European History, must be drawn:
“A novel design is used in the Geschichtsbaum Europa (author unknown) to
show a thematic view of the entire history of Europe in a tree structure. With the
base of the trunk at 0 A.D., branches for different countries Germany, France,
Spain, ... and domains of thought (politics, church, culture) grow upward and
outward. Dated events appear as the leaves of the tree. Events B.C. are shown
under the roots of the tree” [7].
To bridge the gap between the functional and aesthetic goals behind expressing
educational data for middle school students, Figure 5 provides further clarity of
the visualization based on the lessons learned from previous tree generations.
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Figure 5. First zoom level of the application showing subjects by trees, progress
by flowers/fruit, grade in layers, and navigation via wooden tags on the top lefthand corner.
C. User Interaction
A student interacting with a tree in the iPad application environment navigates via
built-in gestures available on an iPad device. Because the iAchieve application
allows free-form exploration at each zoom level, the gestures implemented must
be as intuitive as possible.
1. Swipe – Directional arrows at the top and bottom of the iPad screen suggest
the swipe gesture, allowing students to move between layers of grade levels.
Each row of subject trees below to a specific grade level.
2. Tap – Similar to a computer mouse click for a website, the tap gesture
indicates selection of a particular tree, branch, or flower.
3. Pinch – The pinch gesture allows a student to zoom in and out of a given area.
4. Shake – An additional feature allows students to log out through shaking the
iPad. Shaking the iPad extends the tree metaphor by alluding to shaking a tree
and having petals or leaves fall away.
‘Media S1’ from the ‘Supplementary Materials’ shows an example of the
interactions in the iPad through our project team website.
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D. Tree Data
Flexibility of the iAchieve application tool allows for data from a variety of
sources to be visualized.
1. Data Structure
Starting with hypothetical test score data, based on the Common Core State
Standards, the Math and English subject trees currently express progress from
Mary, Sean, and Rocky, who are fictional students of varying competencies.
To view the example data set, please refer to ‘External Database S1’ in the
‘Supplementary Materials’ section at the end of the manuscript.
Rather than hard-coding individual students’ data, the application includes a
database structure that supports connection to an outside database server. To
ensure scalability for ‘n’ number of students and ‘n’ subjects, the database
structure pulls student data when specifically called.
In addition, the application supports visualization based on existing data [8].
2. Data Dimensions
Each zoom level of our application allows the student to access a particular set
of data dimensions. Students can access grade level, subject, sub-subject, time
it took to complete a sub-subject or section, current month of a 12-month
school year, and when the student was first exposed to a subject, whether it
was through taking a test or playing a game. Figure 6 gives an example of the
zoom levels. Additionally, students may upload personal artifacts to a subject
tree created by them.
Figure 6. Example zoom levels.
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E. User Showcase
Between February and May 2013, the team showcased the application on 10 separate
occasions to solicit feedback and observe user interaction. The showcases included
our demographic but also our peers, faculty advisors, client sponsors, and EA
employees.
During the showcases in April 2013, all users preferred our educational data
visualization as compared to a traditional dashboard [9] or spreadsheet, such as
Figure 7.
Figure 7. Example of an existing dashboard.
Results
Students find the application “organized” and “pretty” [10]. While all students
understood the tree, grade, and subject metaphor, they asked for more labels. At the time
of this manuscript, labels stay on until the user taps a snail on the upper right-hand corner
to turn off the help labels.
We also included a tutorial section as indicated in Figure 8, at the application startup to
help orient our users and let them know that the tree is built based on their educational
data.
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Figure 8. iAchieve tutorial.
Based on these responses, the next generation of the tree becomes iconic and less
realistic. Even students who do not own an iPad do not have trouble picking up the
gestures through trial and error.
Interpretations
During a showcase of the iAchieve application with girl scouts touring the Electronic
Arts headquarters campus, we take note of students’ reactions when logging into the
application under different usernames associated with low, general, or high achieving
data. Upon login, students do not notice a difference with their own trees until they look
over at what is on their neighbors’ iPad. The interpretation is that our application does not
give students direct negative feedback. Rather, our visualization inspires curiosity: what
do these trees mean? Why are there flowers on some trees and not others? Students are
not immediately discouraged by the view of their own trees, regardless of actual
academic progress. Yet, students have the ability to share how much and how little they
want to with their peers. Once the peer comparison aspect is introduced, students start
wondering how they can affect their own trees.
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Many of the students we showed our application to also initially thought it was a game.
We interpret this as a success, because they are pulled into the application regardless of
knowing exactly what it was. Parents also asked if this application was available on the
App Store, and shared their own stories of frustration with not being able to own the data
from parent-teacher conferences.
Conclusions
Students and parents we have sampled, particularly parents, are ready for an engaging
way to own students’ educational data. The grade range from our demographic serves as
a transitional period between the student being entirely dependent on the parental and
educational guidance from elementary school, to when the student studies largely
independently or with other student peers while in high school.
In addition to games and learning applications, iPad development can support data
visualization efforts. Students and parents are equipped and ready to use applications that
are not stand-alone and can be plugged into other systems, while taking advantage of the
language already set through gesture-based, touch devices.
To develop for smart phones and touch devices in an unconventional way, it is essential
to keep in mind existing associations users may have. Due to the screen size and ease of
transport, the iPad is ideal for this type of project, where the student can carry their
educational data with them and explore while on the go.
20. Catherine Garrison and Michael Ehringhaus, Ph.D. Formative and Summative
Assessments in the Classroom. (2007).
http://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/Web_Exclusive/Formative_Summativ
e_Assessment.pdf.
21. Common Core Standards. (2012). http://www.corestandards.org/.
22. Note: Definition of ‘2.5D’ used in the video game industry,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D
23. Note: Definition of a sprite sheet, a method commonly used in the video game
industry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer_graphics).
24. Hugh Smith. Procedural Trees and Procedural Fire in a Virtual World. (2012).
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/procedural-trees-and-procedural-fire-in-avirtual-world.
25. Edward Tufte. “Presenting Data and Information with Edward Tufte.” Phoenix
Sheraton Crescent Hotel, Phoenix Arizona. 1 February 2013. One day workshop.
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26. Michael Friendly. “Geschictesbaum Europa - Tree view of European history.”
Timelines and Visual Histories. York University. 2007.
http://www.datavis.ca/gallery/timelines.php.
27. Note: Anonymous educational game data provided by Pearson, for the 7th grade level.
28. Note: Students were shown our application and one pulled from an existing
educational company. Please also reference Figure 7.
29. Note: Feedback based on a showcase to middle school boys touring Electronic Arts
on March 19, 2013.
Acknowledgments: Faculty sponsors include Jiyoung Lee and Carl Rosendahl, from
Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. Academic client
sponsors include GlassLab, the Games Learning and Assessment Lab, from the Institute
of Play, in partnership with Electronic Arts Spring 2013. Games data provided from
Pearson.
Materials and Methods:
Software - xCode Cocos2D engine; Peripherals (other than the usual
keyboard/mouse) - 4 Mac minis, 4 PC/Mac switchers, an iPad1 and an iPad4.
Version control – SVN.
References (01-10):
Garrison, C., & Ehringhaus, M. (2007). Formative and summative assessments in
the classroom. Retrieved from
http://www.amle.org/Publications/WebExclusive/Assessment/tabid/1120/Default.
aspx
Smith, Hugh. (2012). Procedural Trees and Procedural Fire in a Virtual World.
Retrieved from http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/procedural-trees-andprocedural-fire-in-a-virtual-world.
Tufte, Edward. “Presenting Data and Information with Edward Tufte.” Phoenix
Sheraton Crescent Hotel, Phoenix Arizona. 1 February 2013. One-day workshop.
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Friendly, Michael. “Geschictesbaum Europa - Tree view of European history.”
Timelines and Visual Histories. York University. 2007.
http://www.datavis.ca/gallery/timelines.php.
Media S1:
For a video demonstration of the application, feel free to visit the iAchieve
website at http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/iachieve/?page_id=191.
External Databases S1 (excerpt of data):
StudentID
Name
Grade
Subject
SubSubject
SubSubjectLabel
Chapter
Test1
Test2
Test3
Test4
StartDay
EndDay
52734
Sean
6
Math
RP
Ratios
6.RP.A.1
60
50
50
80
1
10
52734
Sean
6
Math
RP
Ratios
6.RP.A.2
90
70
80
80
10
18
52734
Sean
6
Math
RP
Ratios
6.RP.A.3
80
90
90
18
23
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.A.1
80
100
45
49
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.B.2
80
70
50
61
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.B.3
60
90
62
65
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.B.4
100
100
66
68
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.C.5
80
50
70
69
78
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.C.6
70
90
80
79
85
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.C.7
67
73
83
104
115
52734
Sean
6
Math
NS
Number System
6.NS.C.8
90
130
132
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.A.1
50
60
70
133
139
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.A.2
70
70
70
170
180
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.A.3
90
90
100
201
207
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.A.4
100
100
208
213
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.B.5
70
100
214
217
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.B.6
80
90
90
218
227
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.B.7
80
80
100
228
231
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.B.8
84
67
74
230
240
52734
Sean
6
Math
EE
Equations
6.EE.C.9
87
89
241
248
52734
Sean
6
Math
G
Geometry
6.G.A.1
100
249
252
52734
Sean
6
Math
G
Geometry
6.G.A.2
80
100
253
258
52734
Sean
6
Math
G
Geometry
6.G.A.3
90
90
100
259
267
52734
Sean
6
Math
G
Geometry
6.G.A.4
80
70
90
268
274
52734
Sean
6
Math
SP
Statistics
6.SP.A.1
50
60
60
275
283
52734
Sean
6
Math
SP
Statistics
6.SP.A.2
60
70
80
284
289
52734
Sean
6
Math
SP
Statistics
6.SP.A.3
70
70
90
290
298
52734
Sean
6
Math
SP
Statistics
6.SP.B.4
70
80
90
299
308
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70
80
80
85
Test5
60
90
78
80
100
100
75
100
70
80
PROCEEDINGS
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52734
Sean
6
Math
SP
Statistics
6.SP.B.5
80
52734
Sean
7
Math
RP
Ratios
7.RP.A.1
60
50
50
52734
Sean
7
Math
RP
Ratios
7.RP.A.2
80
90
90
52734
Sean
7
Math
RP
Ratios
7.RP.A.3
90
70
80
80
52734
Sean
7
Math
GG
Glasslab Game
7.GG.A.1
93
89
80
89
52734
Sean
7
Math
NS
Number System
7.NS.A.1
80
100
52734
Sean
7
Math
NS
Number System
7.NS.A.2
90
52734
Sean
7
Math
NS
Number System
7.NS.A.3
70
90
80
52734
Sean
7
Math
EE
Equations
7.EE.A.1
50
60
70
52734
Sean
7
Math
EE
Equations
7.EE.A.2
70
70
70
52734
Sean
7
Math
EE
Equations
7.EE.B.3
90
90
100
52734
Sean
7
Math
EE
Equations
7.EE.B.4
70
100
52734
Sean
7
Math
G
Geometry
7.G.A.1
100
80
80
89
309
315
1
12
13
20
42
56
22
124
57
60
116
121
121
128
129
139
139
146
147
156
157
162
170
176
End of database excerpt. Contact the authors for the complete database (full data set).
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POSTER
Mobile Assignment at the Museum: How a Location-based Assignment
can Enhance the Educational Experience
Authors: Amir Bar 1
Affiliations:
1
University of Houston
One Sentence Summary: An electronic location-based assignment at a museum of fine
arts resulted in higher student engagement and performance.
Abstract:
This presentation will discuss and demonstrate a pioneering mobile application
envisioned and designed by a graduate student. The museum app provides a visual
analysis assignment as well as relevant information to students who visit the Houston
Museum of Fine Arts to fulfill an Art History course assignment. The museum app was
developed last year and went through several improvement cycles. It was finally used last
summer in a large lecture class and created high engagement, high assignment
participation, and better student performance.
The mobile application is designed to provide several crucial elements. It gives students
structure regarding a type of assignment that is new to them. It is an immediately
accessible means to complete an assignment. Most importantly, while they do not have a
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professor physically present, they have access to one through a video showing the
professor modeling the assignment with a painting near the target painting to be analyzed.
Results show that the museum app helps students in the large lecture class (where it can
be difficult to foster engagement) to be more engaged learners and to view the museum
more positively, even as a destination they want to revisit.
Introduction
This project explores the effectiveness of using a location-based digital assignment for
non-major undergraduate art students who were sent to the museum. This class was faceto-face, but location-based assignments could be used to enhance both face-to-face and
online classes. While many courses are moving to the online setting, the significance of
sending students to an actual museum is not fading. Student assignments and feedback on
the museum experience show that using this app increased engagement with the
assignment, the course and the museum. Getting students who are not traditionally
museumgoers to appreciate art in the way these students did creates a level of
engagement that is much more important than just the objective of the class. Although
this is only one project, the results show some promise for the potential of this approach.
The audience
The Visual Analysis assignment is given as part of a non-major art history class at the
University of Houston. The students taking this class are usually sophomores who have to
take one art class as part of the core classes for their degree. The class is offered
(currently) in two venues, one as a completely online course, and the other one in a faceto-face lecture (about 150-200 students per class). Many of the students who take this
class have never visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (MFAH) or any other fine
arts museum.
The problem
The visual analysis assignment was designed to make students analyze the visual aspects
of a painting by evaluating many aspects, which the artists choose while creating the
painting (i.e., colors, line, shading, meaning, etc.).
Until the development of the mobile assignment, the visual analysis assignment included
a visit to the museum where students were encouraged to bring with them an essay
question, take notes, and go home to write a 2-3 page essay. The students for whom this
was their first visit to the museum found it difficult to do the assignment because their
essay was written at home from their notes without access to the artwork itself.
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The solution
The main goal of the mobile assignment was to bring the assignment to the museum
“LIVE,” where students can complete it while standing in front of the painting. The
mobile assignment allows students to complete the assignment at the museum by taking
advantage of the free Wi-Fi connection or by using cellular access from their mobile
device’s Internet provider. The mobile assignment also allows the instructor to deliver
specific instructions on how to complete the assignment as well as a sample video of the
instructor modeling the analysis of a painting very near the target painting. The mobile
assignment is a combination of assignment and mobile course material delivery. Students
now complete the assignment at the museum and can enjoy the rest of the museum visit
without the stress of needing to write an essay at home.
The design
The design of the mobile assignment has three main parts:
Part 1 provides two motivational videos with an opportunity for extra credit. The
two videos include two segments from the audiobook Moon Palace (1). The book
by Paul Auster tells the story of an older man who hires a younger man to help
him write his life story. The older man who used to be a painter sends the younger
man to the museum to conduct a visual analysis of a painting, which is very
similar to the analysis required in the UH art class. The use of a scene from a
novel seems to draw the students into the process, judging from the references
they make to it in their feedback. This more creative introduction appears to help
students start thinking about art more than instructions from their professor, the
previous introduction to the assignment. In addition to watching the videos, the
students need to answer two questions about them in order to get extra credit
points (another aspect of increasing the motivation).
Part 2 breaks the initial one essay question into 21 smaller questions. This
approach was taken in order to make it easier to write their answers on a
smartphone. Typing an essay on the phone is obviously more complicated than
writing 21 sentences or even paragraphs. Also, by breaking the essay question
into subject-oriented questions, the student can easily focus on each aspect.
Part 3: For each of the 21 questions, a “model” answer was created using a
similar, nearby painting as the example. An “example” answer is provided for
each question via text and video. Students can see both the depth and length of the
answer that the professor is expecting. In addition, a short video with additional
information for students who get “stuck” is provided. This approach was guided
by the UDL principle I [1] of offering information via multiple channels (visual,
audio, text), which offer scaffolding for each question.
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The entire assignment was developed on the platform of Survey Monkey. This platform
allows a variety of options including the use of images and videos. In addition, it
automatically adapts to the device the student uses, something that a specific mobile App
does not do. Also Survey Monkey allows collection of the results in an Excel file which
makes the grading process much more efficient.
The Results
The museum mobile assignment was tested as an extra credit opportunity during the
Spring/2012 semester, and in Summer/2013 it was given for the first time as an official
assignment for a grade. Sixty-six students (a smaller number because of summer school)
took the class and completed the assignment. The students were given the opportunity to
take the assignment as a paper-based assignment (in which they wrote the answers on
paper and submitted them via the app at home) or they could access the mobile
assignment via laptop, tablet computer, or smartphone. Thirty-nine students chose to use
a laptop, three students used a smartphone, one used a tablet computer, two used the
printed assignment, and 21 did not answer that question on the survey (it was optional).
Figure 1.
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Students were also asked to give feedback on the assignment. The specific question they
were asked was “Please write us about any positive or negative experience you had with
regard to this assignment.” The results were: 69% of the students gave only positive
feedback, 14% gave positive and negative feedback, 11% gave only negative feedback,
and 6% skipped this question.
Figure 2.
Out of the students who gave negative or mixed feedback, 15 comments were collected.
Out of these 15 comments, five were with regard to the Wi-Fi connectivity at the MFAH;
five were with regard to not having a place to sit (the assignment takes more than an hour
to complete); two were about the assignment design; one was about the difficulty level,
and one was about the length of the assignment.
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Figure 3.
The positive feedback included 44 comments that demonstrated that the students enjoyed
the technical aspect of the assignment as well as the design that included the videos as an
additional tool to help students. Students seemed to also enjoy the overall experience of
visually analyzing an artwork.
In addition, an interview with the grader for this class (a graduate student from the art
department) reveals that the time it took her to grade the assignment for each student was
five minutes rather than 20 minutes for the essay assignment. She mentioned that the
overall number of words was similar (and in some cases higher with the new
assignment), but the fact that it was already organized in an Excel file in which each
answer had its own column helped with the efficiency of the process.
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Figure 4.
Outcome
The visual analysis assignment was presented at a conference (Fostering Deep Learning)
at the University of Houston and as a result, many professors showed interest in using
location-based digital assignments for their course. Today there are four different mobile
assignments being used in five courses at the University of Houston. The courses are in
the Art Department (undergraduate), and in the Human Development & Consumer
Science Department (graduate course). In addition, there are four more designs that will
be completed for the Fall/2013 semester.
1. CAST. (2012). Universal design for learning guidelines version 2.0. Retrieved on
February 10, 2013, from http://www.cast.org/publications/UDLguidelines/version1.html
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POSTER
Serious Games: A Comprehensive Review of Learning Outcomes
Authors: Kathrine Petersen
Affiliations:
1
Center for Computer Assisted Learning (CoCo Lab) University of Sydney
*Correspondence to: Kathrine Petersen at kpet6924@uni.sydney.edu.au
Abstract:
A comprehensive review of learning outcomes in the area of “serious games” research
demonstrates that learning outcomes can be gained from the virtual experience. Games
and simulations have shown positive learning outcomes for learning content knowledge,
reasoning and accuracy. However, these learning outcomes depend on how motivating
and engaging the games are to students, the application of successful design elements and
applying the appropriate learning method to compliment the “serious game”. It was found
that specific descriptions, development of in-game quests, prior game play experience,
ability to engage with virtual peers and mentors, and the level of self-direction in learning
played important roles in these successful learning outcomes.
One Sentence Summary: Overall, research into “Serious Games” for learning indicates
that learning outcomes can be gained through the implementation of well-designed
virtual environments that use curricular content and appropriate learning methods.
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Overview
A review of recent epistemic study results of “serious games” show that there are gains in
learning outcomes while using games and simulations for learning content knowledge
[10]; [24]; [9]; [16]; [1]; [20]). Meanwhile, results also indicated “significant gains” in
learning outcomes can be obtained using “serious games” for learning [17]; [4]; [2]; [6].
Furthermore, some study results demonstrated significant gains in reasoning [18] and
significant gains in accuracy [12]. However, Clark et al. [5] noted significant gains only
existed as long as a complete interface for learning was implemented.
The motivation and engagement of students when learning using games and simulations
was recorded as a positive research result by many researchers [14]; [13]; [22]; [19].
Klopfer, et al. [14] indicated that students engaged in self-directed learning and Ketelhut
et al. [13] noted that while students engage in learning using games and simulations their
behavior improved. Furthermore, Squire [23] mentioned that games and simulations
encouraged academic practices, and that underachieving students were motivated and
enjoyed the experience.
Similarily, students were able to develop new vocabularies and better understanding [22].
When interviewing students about their experience with games and simulations, Klopfer
et al. [14] found that students rated technology highly, and that it positively impacted
their learning. Likewise, Ketelhut et al. [13] and Rosembaum et al. [19] observed that
games and simulations used for learning were good for developing inquiry skills.
Furthermore, Clark et al. [3] observed that technology was able to create a real
experience, and Dieterle [6] found that this ‘real’ experience helped students connect
with and visualize the profession that was emulated within the learning space.
Serious Games: Epistemic Study Results
Greenfield et al. [8] researched University students in the U.S. and Rome to test real-world
transfer of skills, and after playing a video game for 2.5 hours, were then asked to take a
test to measure their ability to generalize and apply principles from demonstrated
examples (e.g. images of components in an electronic circuit). Results from the study
showed that video game performance significantly correlated with improvement in scores
on the electronic circuit. Another study conducted by McClean et al. [16] of 238 college
students playing “Virtual Cell” and 273 students playing “Geography Explorer”
(http://geographyexplorer.com/geography_links) found that students playing “Virtual
Cell” showed 40% gains over lecture, and students playing “Geography Explorer” showed
15-40% gains over lecture.
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Figure 1. Virtual Cell
Figure 2. Geography Explorer
Rosenbaum et al. [19] studied 21 urban high school students playing “Outbreak @ the
Institute”, an augmented reality game where players take on the roles of doctors,
technicians and public health experts trying to contain disease outbreak. As part of the
study students interacted with virtual characters, and employ virtual diagnostic tests and
medicines while they moved across the “real” university campus with handheld devises.
Results from the use of video, surveys and interviews of students showed that students
were able to perceive the game as authentic, felt embodied in the game, engaged in the
inquiry and understood the dynamic nature of the model in the game.
Figure 3. Outbreak @ the Institute
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In Ketelhut et al. [13] “River City” (http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/) study
students collaboratively solved 19th century city problems with illness by interacting with
each other, digital artifacts in the game, computer agents in the game and various data
collection tools. Approximately 2000 adolescents students were tested and results showed
that students learned biology content, that students and teachers were highly engaged,
that students attendance improved and that disruptive behavior dropped.
Furthermore, it was found that students were building 21st Century skills in virtual
communication and expression, and that using this type of technology in the classroom
can facilitate good inquiry learning. Another study involving “River City” conducted by
Dieterle [6] who tested 574 students that were required to complete curriculum,
demonstrated significant differences from pre-test to post-test in terms of Science
Content Understanding (CONTENT) and Self-Efficacy in Scientific Inquiry (SEISI) p (<
.01).
Results showed that students that created and shared artifacts on the Internet were well
suited to problem solving disease transmission. Meanwhile, students who felt highly
connected to media, tools, and people they used for communication, expression and
problem solving in curriculum, were more likely to believe that they are able to
successfully complete the activities that a scientist might engage in. Another “River City”
study conducted by Clark et al. [3] found that of all the students who participated in the
study, over 1000 students indicated that they felt like real scientists for the first time.
Figure 5. River City
Figure 6. River City
Neulight et al. [18] conducted a study involving 46 six grade students from two separate
classes, who were investigated for their understanding of virtual infectious diseases from
participatory simulations in the game-like world “Whyville” and “Whypox”
(http://i.whyville.net/smmk/virus/whypoxLab). Neulight et al. [18] found that there was a
significant shift in student’s responses between pre-test and post test from pre-biological
to biological explanations (t(44) = -3.5, p = 0.001; t(44) = -3.496, p = .001)
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demonstrating that twice as many students reasoned about natural infectious disease with
biological reasoning by the end of the curriculum.
Figure 7. Whyville
Steinkuehler et al. [25] studied the scientific habits of mind in discussion forums around
the commercial massively multiplayer online role-playing game “World of Warcraft” by
analysing 1,984 posts by users in 85 different discussion threads. While the game
involves fantasy themes, they found that 86% of the posts involved social knowledge
construction and more than 50% of the posts demonstrated evidenced systems-based
reasoning. Meanwhile, they also found that roughly 10% demonstrated evidenced modelbased reasoning and 65% displayed evaluative epistemologies supportive of
argumentation as a means for knowledge construction.
Figure 8. World of Warcraft
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In a study of “Taiga” (Quest Atlantis) (http://www.questatlantis.org/) by Barab et al. [2]
they compared the learning outcomes of 51 undergraduate participants in 4 conditions;
electronic book-based content, “simplistic framing” of content presented as a web-based
2D curriculum, immersive world-based (pair-based), and single player immersive worldbased. The results showed that learners in either of the virtual world-based conditions
significantly outperformed learners in electronic book group (p=.01), and outperformed
book and ‘simple-framing’ groups on a transfer test (p=.01).
In another “Quest Atlantis” study, Hickey et al. [9] looked at the impact of a 15-hour
“Taiga” ecological sciences curriculum in “Quest Atlantis”, and this was done by
assessing gains in individual science content and socio-scientific inquiry with a
performance assessment that presented related problems in related context.
Furthermore, the study consisted of randomly sampled release tests to assess the gains
and involved a 6th Grade teacher using the curriculum with two classes. Results showed
that students using “Quest Atlantis” obtained greater gains (0.3 and 0.2 SD) than students
in classes that used expository text on the same concepts. After formative feedback and
development for the in-game Quest, the same teacher used the “Taiga” curriculum in all
four of his classes that resulted in substantially higher gains in understanding and
achievement (1.1 SD and 0.4 SD).
Figure 9. Quest Atlantis
Jacobson et al. [10] investigated 10th grade students under two conditions in Singapore
using the “NIELS” model simulation that teaches concepts about electricity. The first
condition involved “productive failure” in which students worked on a problem for each
model followed by structured problem activities specified on worksheets, while the “nonproductive failure” condition involved worksheets for both activities. Interestingly, the
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results showed that the “productive failure” group performed better on the post-test
assessments of declarative and conceptual understanding.
In another study, Son et al [21] conducted three experiments to examine the influence of
different descriptions and perceptual instantiations of scientific principle of competitive
specialization. The studies demonstrated that intuitive descriptions led to enhanced
domain specific learning, but also deterred transfer. The studies also indicated that
“idealized” graphics were more effective than concrete graphics, even when unintuitive
descriptions are applied to them, however when graphics are (e.g. definite, specific)
learning and transfer largely depend on the particular description.
Annetta, et al. [1] conducted a study of 74 fifth grade students playing “Dr. Fiction” a
teacher Multiplayer Educational Gaming Application (MEGA) using pre-post test design.
The found that students overall did significantly better on the post-test (p < .001, effect
size .65). The study also looked at gender differences and found no significant
differences between genders based on performance results. However, when Anneta et al.
[1] studied 66 students playing a “teacher-created” game that looked at Genetics results
showed no significant improvement in post-test when compared to 63 students not
playing the game.
In Squire [23] study using the game “Sick at South Beach” that involved 55 students
using the augmented reality game-based curriculum, results showed that fictional
elements of the augmented reality game situated the learning experience and encouraged
academic practices.
Furthermore, Squire [23] found that student created inscriptions influenced student’s
emerging understanding, that the game-based curriculum’s design enhanced student’s
conceptual understandings, and learning through technology enhanced curriculum and
encouraged student’s identities as independent problem solvers.
Figure 10. Sick at South Beach
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Meanwhile, Kafai et al. [12] conducted a study using “Whypox” that focused on
student’s use of two simulations of epidemic outbreaks; one fast and one slow. It was
found that during the “Whypox” outbreaks, more than 1400 simulations performed by
171 players occurred at the peak of the study. Kafai et al. [12] also found that 68% of
players conducted some form of systemic investigation by running the simulations 3 or
more times. They also found that 49% of those players demonstrated significant
improvements in the accuracy of their predictions, and that 70% of players pursued
engineering type goals in the process rather than scientific strategies as indicated by the
relationship between independent variables and the accuracy of users’ predictions.
In a more recent study, Falcao et al. [7] conducted a Qualitative study that explored
Digital Technologies and learner focus using technology-based learning domains. Falcao
etal. [7] found that the technology encouraged a more purposeful, conceptual exploration
amongst learners; that learners not only focused their attention on the learning activities
within the technology-based domains, they explored and tried to understand how the
technology-based learning domain worked and how the artifacts affected the technology.
#Summary of Epistemic Studies Table
Researcher designed “Serious Games”
The “Urban Science” Study
Shaffer [20] conducted a mixed methods (Qualitative & Quantitative) study using the
“Urban Science” Computer Game. While evaluating the computer game “Urban
Science”, designed for learning complex ecology planning problems, it was found that
players were able to successfully problem solve, and develop relevant and innovative
solutions. Shaffer [20] thus deemed “Urban Science” a valuable educational tool for
starting a discussion about interconnectedness or urban systems. Furthermore, Shaffer
[20] suggested that research with “Urban Science” demonstrates that novices benefit by
working on problem solving and reflecting on problem solving through working with
peers and mentors.
Figure 11. Urban Science
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The “Omosa” Study
In a more recent study, Jacobson et al. [11] conducted research that involved the
development of an Agent-Based Virtual Environment (ABVW); an immersive virtual
world for experiencing and exploring a "Virtual" biology fieldwork ecosystem. The
system incorporated computational biology models of predator-prey interactions that
were linked to a 2D agent-based modeling tool. Furthermore, the study involved grade 9
students engaging in computational scientific inquiry using the ABVW over a two-week
period.
Jacobson et al. [11] incorporated pre-post testing of biology content knowledge
(dependent variable) and student’s attitudes toward science inquiry as part of the study.
They also used multiple choice questions and open-ended short answer questions to
assess content knowledge, while the likert-scale was used to measure attitudes towards
science inquiry. Furthermore, 12 items were used for the attitudinal scale, as factor
analysis and reliability tests suggested that eight items were not reliable.
The “Omosa” study results indicated that there were no significant correlations between
grouping variables (gender, class type, and the treatment condition). However class type
was found to produce differential results, as selective class student’s attitudes towards
science inquiry were higher than comprehensive class students, although this was not a
significant difference.
Jacobson et al. [11] found that there were no significant correlations between attitudes
towards scientific inquiry and content knowledge results, as total attitudinal scores and
the total content knowledge scores showed no significant difference. Although the
selective class had a higher score on the post-test than the comprehensive class, this was
not a significant difference (F(1,25)) = .629, p = .435). However, for the combined scores
of both classes on these items, a 1-tail repeated measures ANOVA showed that the posttest score was significantly higher than the pre-test (F(1,25) = 3.661, p =. 03) (Jacobson
et al, 2012, p.10)
Figure 12. Omosa VWorld
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Jacobson et al. [11] expressed interest in extending the approach in their study to foster
learning of historical and cultural knowledge including the linking of virtual learning
experiences in informal settings, such as museums with formal settings in science and
history classes (Jacobson et al, 2012, p.12-13).
Jacobson et al. [11] also stated that limitations existed with the size of the study and that
results therefore are provisional. Furthermore, they could not confirm learning gains on
the post-test were due to the learning activities in the “Omosa” ABVW, the learning
activities in the simulation “Omosa NetLogo”, or a combination of both learning
activities. In order to overcome this, Jacobson et al. [11] recommend future research
could explore the learning efficacy of these two types of learning experiences separately,
and expressed a need to extend the research to include more students and schools.
Similarly, future research could explore the use of computational scientific enquiry in
regular science classes involving different science content and grade levels. Overall,
Jacobson et al. [11] demonstrated that ABVWs show potential for enhancing learning of
scientific knowledge and skills, and are likely to enhance more general interest in science
as well. They also showed that virtual and serious game approaches for creating learning
experiences show potential to convey both a deeper sense of the wonders of the natural
world and an understanding of the scientific enterprise at its core (Jacobson et al, 2012
p.13), highlighting the likeminded opinion of Young et al [26].
Conclusion
“Serious games” that are designed well using school curricular can produce positive
learning outcomes for students. Research to date has demonstrated that serious games and
simulations help students learn scientific knowledge, urban science skills, apply medical
knowledge and learn history curricular. However, these positive results did not occur in
poorly designed virtual environments, were concrete graphics were used over “idealized”
graphics, were 2D reading books were used instead of the virtual environment and were
static learning was used instead of situated learning.
Overall, there is much to be gained from reviewing achievements in “serious games”
research and what produces positive learning outcomes for students learning standardsbased curricular.
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to virtual reality: Investigating gender effect and student engagement on learning
through video game play in an elementary school classroom. International
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DOI:10.1080/09500690801968656
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2. S. A. Barab, B. Scott, S. Siyahhan, R. Goldstone, A. Ingram-Goble, S. Zuiker &
S. Warrant, Transformational play as a curricular scaffold: Using videogames to
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18. N. Neulight, Y. Kafai, L. Kao, B. Foley & C. Galas, Children’s participation in a
virtual epidemic in the science classroom: Making connections to natural
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19. E. Rosenbaum, E. Klopfer & J. Perry, On location learning: authentic applied
science with networked augmented realities. Journal Science Education
Technology, Volume 16, Issue 1, pp. 31-45 (2006) DOI: 10.1007/s10956-0069036-0
20. D. Shaffer, How Computer Games Help Children Learn: Palgrave Macmillan
(2006).
21. J. Son & R. Goldstone, Fostering General Transfer with Specific Simulations.
Pragmatics and Cognition, 17, 1-42 (2009).
22. K. Squire, 2005). Changing the game: What happens when video games enter the
classroom? Innovate: Journal of Online Education 1 (6) (2005).
(http://effectiveclassroom.org/goto/http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/ten
ure-files/manuscripts/26-innovate.pdf)
23. K. Squire, From information to experience: Place-based augmented reality games
as a model for learning in a globally networked society. Teachers College Record,
112(10), 2565–2602 (2010). (http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/tenurefiles/01-TCR-squire-edits.pdf).
24. K. Squire, M. Barnett, J. Grant & T. Higginbotham, Electromagnetism
Supercharged!: learning physics with digital simulation games. In Y. B. Kafai, W.
A. Sandoval, N. Enyedy, A. S. Nixon, & F. Herrera, (Eds.), Proceedings of the
6th International Conference on Learning Sciences (pp. 513–520). (Los Angeles:
UCLA Press, 2004).
25. D. Steinkuehler & S. Duncan, Scientific habits of mind in virtual worlds. Journal
of Science Education and Technology, 17(6), 530-543. (2008)
26. M. Young, S. Slota, A. Cutter, G. Jalette, G. Mullin, B. Lai, Z. Simeoni, M Tran
& M. Yukhymenko, (2012). Our Princess Is in Another Castle: A Review of
Trends in Serious Gaming for Education in Review Of Educational Research
2012 82: 61 (originally published online February 2012) DOI:
10.3102/0034654312436980 (http://rer.sagepub.com/content/82/1/61).
Acknowledgments: Professor Michael Jacobson for sharing his insight and knowledge.
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Table 1. Summary of Epistemic Research into “Serious Games”
Researcher/s
Theory
Methodology
Participants/Results
Son & Goldstone (2009)
Qualitative
Conducted three
experiments to examine
influence of different
descriptions and perceptual
instantiations of scientific
principle of competitive
specialization
Hickey, Ingram-Goble &
Jameson (2009)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Barb, Scott, Siyahhan,
Goldstone, Ingram-Goble,
Zuiker & Warrant (2009)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Ketelhut, Dede, Clark &
Nelson (2006)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Dieterle (2009b)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Studied the impact of a 15hour “Taiga” ecological
sciences curriculum in
“Quest Atlantis” and this
was done by assessing
gains in individual science
content and socio scientific
inquiry with a performance
assessment that presented
related problems in related
context. Randomly sampled
release tests were used to
assess the gains. Involved a
6th Grade teacher using the
curriculum with two
classes.
In another “Taiga” (Quest
Atlantis) study that
compared the outcomes of
51 Undergraduate
participants in 4 conditions;
electronic book-based
content, “simplistic
framing” of content
presented as a web based
2D curriculum, immersive
world-based (pair-based),
and single player
immersive world-based.
In “River City” simulation
students collaboratively
solved 19th century city
problems with illness by
interacting with each other,
digital artifacts in the game,
computer agents in the
game and various data
collection tools.
Approximately 2000
adolescent students were
tested.
Tested 574 students that
were required to complete
curriculum using “River
City”.
Their studies demonstrated that
intuitive descriptions led to enhanced
domain specific learning, but also
deterred transfer, while "idealised"
graphics were more effective than
concrete graphics even when
unintuitive descriptions are applied to
them, however when graphics are
(definite, specific) learning and
transfer largely depend on the
particular description.
Students obtained greater gains (0.3
and 0.2 SD) than students in classes
that used expository text on the same
concepts. After formative feedback and
development for the in-game Quest the
same teacher used the “Taiga”
curriculum in all four of his classes
that resulted in substantially higher
gains in understanding and
achievement (1.1 SD and 0.4 SD).
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They found that learners in either of
the virtual world-based conditions
significantly outperformed learners in
electronic book group (p=.01), and
outperformed book and
“simple-framing” groups on a transfer
test (p=.01).
Their results showed that students
learned biology content that students
and teachers were highly engaged, that
students attendance improved and that
disruptive behavior dropped, that
students were building 21st Century
skills in virtual communication and
expression and importantly that using
this type of technology in the
classroom can facilitate good inquiry
learning.
Results showed that significant
differences from pre-test to post-test in
terms of science content Science
Content
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Neulight, Kafai, Kao,
Foley & Galas (2007)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
46 six grade students from
two separate classes were
investigated for their
understanding of virtual
infectious diseases from
participatory simulations in
a game-like world
(“Whypox” & “Whyville”)
Squire (2005)
Qualitative
Clark & Dede (2005)
Qualitative
The study is a comparative
case study involving
"Civilization lll" being used
for activities exploring
world history. Two high
school sites were chosen
based on teachers interest
in using games as
supportive learning tools
and whose interest reflected
a concern about finding
ways to engage kids who
felt alienated from school
in learning experiences. In
the urban school, teachers
expressed a need to help
students who had little
interest in history. The
second site was an afterschool context where
educators hoped to engage
students with school-based
learning in general
including the development
of historical understanding.
Study in “River City”
including over 1000
students.
Squire (2010)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
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“Sick at South Beach”
simulation study with 55
students using the
augmented reality gamebased curriculum.
Understanding (CONTENT) and SelfEfficacy in Scientific Inquiry (SEISI) p
( < .01). Students that created and
shared artifacts on the internet were
well suited to problem solving disease
transmission, while students who felt
highly connected to media, tools and
people they used for communication,
expression and problem solving in
curriculum were more likely to believe
that they are able to successfully
complete the activities that a scientist
might engage in.
They found that a significant shift in
student’s responses between pre-test
and post test from pre-biological to
biological explanations (t(44) = -3.5, p
= 0.001; t(44) = -3.496, p = .001)
demonstrating that twice as many
students reasoned about natural
infectious disease with biological
reasoning by the end of the curriculum.
Squire found that most urban middle
school students required considerable
game play prior to learning in order to
develop basic game concepts. After
school students showed more
motivation, while 25% of urban middle
school students complained that the
game was too hard, complicated or
uninteresting. However, 25% of
mostly underachieving students loved
playing the game and thought it was a
“perfect” way to learn history, some
considering the experience the
highlight of their year.
Underachieving students tended to
consider school-mandated history to be
propaganda, while they tended to enjoy
the scenarios that enabled them to
explore historical conditions and
helped them develop new historical
vocabularies as well as a better
understanding of geography and world
history.
Found that of all the students who
participated in the study, over 1000
students indicated that they felt like
real scientists for the first time.
Showed that fictional elements of the
augmented reality game situated the
learning experience and encouraged
academic practices, student created
inscriptions influenced students’
emerging understanding, the gamebased curriculum’s design enhanced
student’s conceptual understandings
and learning through technology
enhanced curriculum and encouraged
student’s identities as independent
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Shaffer (2006)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Urban Science Computer
Game
Kafai, Quintero & Feldon
(2010)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Studied “Whypox” and
focused on students use of
two simulations of
epidemic outbreaks, one
fast and one slow. During
“Whypox” outbreaks, more
than 1400 simulations
performed by 171 players
occurred at the peak of the
study.
Rosembaum, Klopfer &
Perry (2006)
Qualitative
Holbert (2009)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Annetta, Mangrum,
Holmes, Collazo & Cheng
(2009a)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Anneta, Mangrium,
Holms, Collazo & Cheng
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Studied 21 urban high
school students playing
“Outbreak @ the Institute”,
an augmented reality game
where players take on the
roles of doctors,
technicians and public
health experts trying to
contain disease outbreak.
Students interact with
virtual characters and
employ virtual diagnostic
tests and medicines while
they move across the ‘real’
university campus with
handheld devises.
Collected data during
ethnographic observations
of and individual clinical
interviews with children
playing popular video
games (“Mario Kart”,
“Wii” and “Burnout
Paradise”).
74 fifth grade students
playing “Dr. Fiction” a
teacher Multiplayer
Educational Gaming
Application (MEGA) using
pre-post test design.
Studied 66 students playing
a teacher-created game that
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problem solvers.
While evaluating the computer game
“Urban Science” designed for learning
complex ecology planning problems, it
was found that players were able to
successfully problem solve and
develop relevant and innovative
solutions and thus deems “Urban
Science” a valuable educational tool
for starting a discussion about
interconnectedness or urban systems.
Furthermore, research with “Urban
Science” suggests that novices also
benefit by working on problem solving
and reflecting on problem solving
through working with peers and
mentors
They found that 68% of players
conducted some form of systemic
investigation by running the
simulations 3 or more times, that 49%
of those players demonstrated
significant improvements in the
accuracy of their predictions and that
70% of players pursued engineering
type goals in the process rather than
scientific strategies as indicated by the
relationship between independent
variables and the accuracy of users’
predictions.
Results using video, surveys and
interviews of students showed that
students were able to perceive the
game as authentic, felt embodied in the
game, engaged in the inquiry and
understood the dynamic nature of the
model in the game.
Results showed that children’s
intuitive schema of velocity,
acceleration and momentum were at
play while they were playing these
games.
Students overall did significantly better
on post-test (p < .001, effect size .65).
The study also looked at gender
differences and found no significant
differences between genders based on
performance results.
Showed no significant improvement in
post-test when compared to 63
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213
(2009b)
Quantitative)
looked at Genetics
students not playing the game.
Greenfield, Camaini et al
(1994)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Results showed that video game
performance significantly correlated
with improvement in scores on the
electronic circuit.
McClean, Saini-Eidukat,
Scwert, Slator & White
(2001)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
Duncan & Stienkuehler
(2008)
Qualitative
University students in the
U.S. and Rome were
studied to test real-world
transfer of skills and after
playing a video game for
2.5 hours, were then asked
to take a test to measure
their ability to generalize
and apply principles from
demonstrated examples
(images of components in
an electronic circuit).
Study of 238 college
students playing “Virtual
Cell” and 273 students
playing “Geography
Explorer”.
Studied the scientific habits
of mind in discussion
forums around the
commercial massively
multiplayer online roleplaying game “World of
Warcraft”, analysing 1,984
posts by users in 85
different discussion threads
Falcao et al (2011)
Qualitative
Digital Technologies and
learner focus research using
technology-based learning
domains.
Jacobson, Taylor, &
Richards (2012)
Mixed Methods
(Qualitative &
Quantitative)
This study involved the
development of “Omosa”,
an Agent-Based Virtual
Environment (ABVW)
consisting of an immersive
virtual world for
experiencing and exploring
a complex ecosystem as
part of "virtual" biology
fieldwork. The system
incorporated predator-prey
interactions based on
computational biology
modeling techniques that
were linked to a 2D agentbased modeling tool. The
study involved grade 9
students who used the
ABVW over a two-week
period to engage in
computational scientific
inquiry. Forty-seven
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They found that students playing
“Virtual Cell” showed 40% gains over
lecture and students playing
“Geography Explorer” 15-40% gains
over lecture.
While the game involves fantasy
themes, they found that 86% of the
posts involved social knowledge
construction and more than 50% of the
posts evidenced systems-based
reasoning, while roughly 10%
evidenced model-based reasoning and
65% displayed evaluative
epistemologies supportive of
argumentation as a means for
knowledge construction.
Researchers found that the technology
encouraged ‘a more purposeful,
conceptual exploration’ amongst
learners; that learners not only focused
their attention on the learning activities
within the technology-based domains,
they explored and tried to understand
how the technology-based learning
domain worked and how the artifacts
affected the technology
The main dependent measures on the
pre-test and post-test were biology
content knowledge and the attitudes
toward science inquiry. Results
showed no significant correlations
between grouping variables including
gender, class type, and the treatment
condition, however, class type was a
significant variable. The selective class
students having significantly higher
knowledge scores in both pre-test and
post-test, and this correlation became
higher on the post-test (r = 0.741, p <
0.01). There were no significant
correlations between total attitudinal
scores and the total content knowledge
scores. Results showed a significant
decrease in the attitudes about science
pre/post test (t(23)?= 3.20, p < 0.05)
with no variables of the dataset (i.e.,
gender, class type) contributing to this
significance. Although the selective
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214
students in total
participated in the study, 28
boys (59.6%) and 19 girls
(40.4%).
There were 22 students
(46.8%) and 25 students
(53.2%) in the
comprehensive and
selective classes
respectively.
class had a higher score on the posttest than the comprehensive class, this
was not a significant difference
(F(1,25)) = .629, p = .435). However,
for the combined scores of both classes
on these items, a 1-tail repeated
measures ANOVA showed that the
post-test score was significantly higher
than the pre-test (F(1,25) = 3.661, p =.
03).
Author Notes: This study is a prelude to exploring research into using “serious games”
for teaching literature curricular by exploring successful research outcomes in other
learning domains.
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ISSN 2325-4041
POSTER
Testing Manual Dexterity in Dentistry using a
Virtual Reality Haptic Simulator
Authors: G. Ben Gal 1 A. Ziv2,3 , N. Gafni 4 , E. Weiss 1
Affiliations:
1
Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Hebrew University-Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel
Department of Medical Education, Tel Aviv University, Sackler School of Medicine, Israel
3
Israel Center for Medical Simulation (MSR), Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Israel
4
National Institute for Testing & Evaluation (NITE), Jerusalem, Israel
2
Overview
The dentist's work requires extensive and current theoretical knowledge, as well as fine
manual dexterity for performing delicate procedures in the patient’s mouth. Dental
schools traditionally use a simulative environment, in which the students carry out
procedures on a mannequin with acrylic teeth and jaws. Evaluation of performance by the
instructors lacks consistency, both per rater and between raters, as the small dimensions
and angles make human assessment difficult.
Virtual reality simulators (VRS), which provide real-time performance feedback, have
been used in dental education for more than a decade and are increasingly recognized as a
powerful training tool. However, their scoring and evaluation have not been validated. A
newly developed haptic simulator (IDEA Dental ®, USA) was used in the experiments
described here (Figure 1). The user is required to perform virtual drilling tasks in various
geometric shapes, while receiving force feedback based on three-dimensional images
displayed on a screen (Figure 2). The tasks approximate those encountered in the
preparation of dental cavities. The simulator registers working time and accuracy for
each task.
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216
Figure 1. Phantom Omni®, Sensable™ Technologies, MA
Figure 2. Simulation as viewed on the computer screen, straight line task.
To test the psychometric properties of this assessment, a series of experiments was
carried out. Various aspects were examined, including: content validity, internal
reliability, predictive validity and construct validity.
Initially, we examined the relevance of the simulator’s use and its haptic proximity to the
real professional environment, using questionnaires administered to 21 dentists and 12
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217
dental students after short encounters with the system. The results showed that
participants rated the simulator as having significant potential for the teaching and
assessment of manual dexterity in dentistry, and affirmed that the skills it simulates are
relevant to the field. Table 1 shows the results of the questionnaire regarding the
estimated benefit of the simulator as a teaching and evaluation tool. The difference in the
ratings between the two groups was not statistically significant, but a clear trend toward a
higher evaluation by the students was observed.
Table 1. Potential benefit of the simulator as estimated by dental educators and students
on a scale of 1 to 7.
The extent to which the simulator can be useful in:
Total no. of
participants
N=33
mean
SD
mean
SD
mean
SD
1. Teaching manual skills.
2. Self-learning of manual skills.
3. Evaluation of manual skills.
5.24
5.42
4.75
5.05
5.33
4.50
1.53
1.43
1.77
5.58
5.58
5.17
0.76
0.86
1.14
1.33
1.26
1.60
Dental educators
N=21
Students
N=12
Given the positive results, it was decided to compile a simulated test. A pilot test
consisting of 12 tasks was given to 106 participants. Based on the result of the pilot test, a
final test, also consisting of 12 tasks, was prepared. The test was given to 142 participants
who were divided into three groups according to their dental experience: 88 dental
students (first, fourth and sixth year), 37 dentists and 17 participants who are not in the
dental field. A scale of 0 to 200 was chosen for the test. The mean score and standard
deviation of the three groups is shown in Figure 3.
Dentists
Dental Students
Not in Dental Field
Figure 3. Mean score and standard deviation in the VR test by groups
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The test’s reliability and the correlation between the quality of performance and
experience in dentistry were calculated A high internal reliability was found: Cronbach
Alpha = 0.82. The correlation (Spearman Rank Correlation) between performance on the
test and dental experience was 0.47. The correlation between the preliminary simulator
test and practical drilling standard test, performed after one semester’s training, was
calculated for 46 freshmen students. The Pearson correlation (predictive validity) was
0.33 (P <0.05).
Summary
The experimental results strongly support the content, construct and predictive validity of
manual dexterity tests using the simulator. It appears that that the simulator can be used
as an objective, standardized, reliable and fair testing tool for manual dexterity dentistry.
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ISSN 2325-4041
PRESENTATIONS, DEMOS AND WORKSHOPS
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Initiative to obtain an expanded rendition of these
proceedings that contains presentations, demos
and workshops:
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COPYRIGHT, LICENSE AND USAGE NOTICE
Copyright © 2013, All Rights Reserved
2013 Copyright held by the individual Owners/Authors of the
constituent materials that comprise this work. Exclusive publication
and distribution rights held by the Immersive Education Initiative.
Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the
Author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted.
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Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0
International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. Conditions and terms of
the license, in human-readable and legal form, are defined at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and summarized
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Attribution: You must give appropriate credit and provide a link to the
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